Easy Kitchen Update: The Faucet Factor

Although I'm not a huge fan of our kitchen sink (or countertop… or cabinets…), there have been other more important things on our project priority list around the house. It's not like our kitchen is out-of-date or anything like that, but let's just say that if time and money weren't an issue, I'd love to give it an overhaul. 

Anyway, recently an opportunity to make a small change presented itself, and we couldn't turn it down.

Here's our current faucet... nothing special here, folks. 

Just your standard chrome fixture.

My mother-in-law was in the process of updating her own kitchen and found a faucet for a mere $30 at a store called Tuesday Morning. Since she wasn’t sure what finish she wanted to go with her new sink, she bought both the Stainless Steel and Tuscan Bronze. The faucet was pretty nice as far as we could tell, so we told her if she chose bronze, we’d buy the other one off of her. Luckily for us, that was what ended up happening!

The "Alina" 1-handle kitchen faucet by Pfister

List price: $245.00

Just look at that couple on the box enjoying their faucet so much. Although we had gotten through the past five years with our existing faucet, all I knew now was that I desperately wanted to be those people.

So we decided that Memorial Day weekend would be a good time to tackle this particular project. I was pretty much leaving this one up to Luke, since I had no idea what I was doing. He didn’t have a whole lot of experience changing out faucets either but I was pretty confident he’d be able to figure it out.

First we had to clean out everything under the sink. By the way, it's amazing how many cleaners and spray bottles we've managed to cram under there... anyone else??)

Next we (Luke) turned off the water, unhooked the connections, and pulled out the existing faucet and spray hose. The sink underneath the cover plate was pretty grimy, so it took some scrubbing (with stainless steel cleaner and then baking soda) to finally get it clean and shining again.

So now the new faucet was ready to install! Everything was going pretty smooth at first. Got the new cover plate on and sealed with clear caulk. Got the faucet in the hole and tightened it up from underneath. 

Then as Luke was getting ready to connect the hot and cold water again, I heard him say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” That’s never a good sign (yet it’s become an all-too-common phrase when working on projects around this house).

As it turns out, the existing gray hose thing-y (I had no idea what it was called at the time) for the cold water was about 2” too short to reach the new faucet. Here’s what it looked like.

With our fingers crossed, it was time to make a trip to Lowe’s and see if we could find a slightly longer piece. It didn’t take too long before we found exactly what we needed:

The PEX faucet riser (I suppose that sounds much more technical than "gray hose thing-y") was only sold in one length but we would be able to cut it down to what we needed. And luckily it was cheap! Crisis averted.

Back at home, Luke finished hooking everything up under the sink without any further setbacks. Time to turn the water back on and test everything out. We didn’t spring a leak anywhere so that was a relief! 

In case you're interested, here's a view looking up from inside the cabinet.

So without further ado, here is our sleek and sexy new faucet! (I never thought I'd be calling a faucet sexy, but I guess that's what happens after a few years of being a homeowner.)

Meet Alina.

It’s a far cry from a kitchen makeover, but it's definitely a step in the right direction (and puts that old chrome faucet to shame). Looks aside, the high-arc design of this faucet also makes it easier to put deeper pots and pans inside the sink now. And, it was an absolute steal at only $30! The new spray hose is nice too, and we're able to pull it out farther than the old one. Overall I'm super happy about it--not bad for for an afternoon's worth of time!

If you could make one update to your kitchen, what would it be?