Monkey House

Small update, on two related points–

As you guys (anybody reading this blog) already know, we have opted to have a home birth. Part of our plan is to use a birthing tub (AquaDoula is the brand name) for comfort, muscle relief, and if Alie feels like it, the delivery itself.

Tubs need water.

Water source is ensuite faucet.

Ensuite faucet to tub requires hose.

Hose to tub requires adapter on faucet.

Now, most (all?) faucets have a screw-on aerator attachment. You know the thing I’m talking about. Little mesh baskety-dealy that prevents the water from coming out in one forceful gush… in kitchens, people unscrew these for attaching Brita filters. Yeah. We broke that. I broke that. In all fairness, it was seized onto the faucet with about 20 years of corrosion and mineral build-up. Same thing happened to a colleague of mine not too many months ago, so I know I can’t be the only one.

But either way, off to Home Depot. And if you’re off to Home Depot, might as well do it right. That meant getting a new faucet, shut off valves (had to go back a second time as I got straight when I needed angled), and braided supply lines. Add to this a “new” sink we already had! Since we hated the beige one that was in there (and happened to have a white one that we got for free not too long ago), changeroo time.

For possibly the first time ever, I can say that although breaking the faucet sucked, the actual renovation was a complete success. No drips, nothing broken, no problems!

Some parting statistics:

- Filling the AquaDoula takes 55 minutes with our faucet. That’s a long time to be running water. Felt guilty.
- Heating the AquaDoula to 95 or so degrees Farenheit takes 18 mother-effing hours. Needless to say, we didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of our labour that night.