Two trips to the hardware store

Yesterday was a day that I had hoped to tour, a little.  A Dam had been removed on the White Salmon River, and I wanted to look the area over, and see the effect on the water level upstream where a lot of summer homes were located.  There are a few wineries in the area, and Anne-Marie wanted to visit a certain one for a special flavor to take to Nevada.  None of this happened.  I got involved in a plumbing leak repair, and got tied up for most of the afternoon.

The leak that I found the day before was needing to be addressed and I disassembled the drain pipes right where the leak was located, and with the leaky parts in hand, I went to the local hardware store.  The hardware store that I went to was one that I had visited many times before, and I knew where my needed plumbing parts were located.  The front of the store had an Excuse Our Dust sign, explaining that they were in the process of a remodel.  I had the same luck of finding my items, as if I had entered a store that I had never seen before, everything had been moved to a different part of the store.

I found not only new drain pipe, but new gaskets for all connections, I have the best luck with these projects when I put all new stuff in.  I got back to the trailer with the silly idea that this would be quick, and Anne-Marie and I could go to White Salmon and explore for the rest of the afternoon.  As I was fitting the the parts together, and  trying to make sense of what I had brought home, I found that one section of pipe was for a different application, and would not work here.  Frustration hit me hard, but I tried the new gaskets on the old pipe, and they fit and seemed to work well, except for now another leak was there.  While twisting and cinching the fittings down, I found the sink strainer basket, was not tight and I could turn it inside the sink.  I had Anne-Marie help to hold the strainer in place, while I used a big wrench under the sink, in a failed attempt to stop the newly found leak. 

Depression, and a nap to recharge my energy levels, and then another trip to the Hardware Store, and I bought a new sink strainer and basket, plumbers putty, and some Teflon tape.

This shows the plumbers putty that has gushed out and onto the old gasket and threads of the old basket, and the shiny new one.  Cleaning the old parts up, and getting the underside big ring nut to tighten easily, was more than I wanted to deal with, so in the trash they go, and the new parts assembled easily.

The finished sink drain, and no leaks underneath.  Plumbing issues are best resolved, for me, by removing all that I can reach with a wrench, throwing it in the trash, and buying all new from the hardware store.