while the cat is away the mice are playing. i.e. the leaky sink got torn apart and the old piece of crap faucet is gone.
perhaps i should have looked first as i went shopping for a replacement i ended up at all the big box stores and they had little in white that looked decent and i knew the cat would like. she must have white.
the sink traps were also really bad and i replaced those too, except while taking them out (thank goodness for my dremel tool as in both the sink and the traps were plugged with corrosion and goop as to be unmovable by hand turning or even hitting with a screw driver and hammer -- don't tell me how i should have gotten those puppies loose as all three weren't moving or were turning the whole thing when i could grip them with the largest wrench). anyways, the putty was turned into crumbly gunk and obviously was not working well any longer.
i suspect the cleaning chemicals used to get rid of the rust in the sink turned the putty into the crumbly mess.
the new traps look great, the new faucet also looks very nice (my camera is broken or i'd post peectures), but the question is what can i use to clean the rust from the sinks that won't do in the sink traps (stainless steel now - the ones before were not) or degrade the plumber putty? the cat must have white sinks. (we have some rust in the water, but it doesn't bother me, but i sure would not have white fixtures. the cat likes white and it must stay white.) we've used the usual cleaners (seems like the works are about all that do the job, but i'd like to find something else that does the job and doesn't destroy things in the process).
on the plus side, the sink traps i put in were pretty easy to do and the faucet wasn't that bad either. by far the worst was getting the plastic or metal screws to come off (thus the dremel with a cutting wheel :) ) and cleaning the rust and gunk off (steel wool, chisel blade, baking soda, etc.). before i resorted to the dremel i tried a utility knife to cut the plastic screw and of course managed to stick it in my thumb instead. it's not that i go out of my way to do things like this, but it seems they all want a bit of blood, skinned knuckles, smashed fingers or whatever to compensate the Ghods of Projecta or something...
i'm not sure the cat will like this new faucet, but it was the only one i could find that was even close to acceptable. at a hardware store kitty corner from the big box Menard's. price was less than what could have been an alternative at Mendards/Lowes, but they all carried by far the same sort of stuff (and almost nothing in white) and had the same prices.
well if you've read this far, you're pretty die hard. :) thanks for any comments, suggestions, etc.
songbird