Shower Shenanigans

While I was taking a shower earlier this evening, I thanked myself that I installed a new shower head a week ago. It wasn`t much. Considering all of the options, I bought a cheap replacement for the one in our apartment. The old one was one of those plastic shower heads that had the same color as aluminum. The new one, albeit still plastic, is better. It was fun shopping for that particular model.

When we went shopping at SM, I decided to duck into ACE Hardware and buy one. All of the wonderful models (the ones with massage settings) were priced quite high. Three thousand pesos is a bit too much for me. Add to that the fact that the backs of their boxes displayed the phrase, "For High Pressure Only", or something to that effect. So, I went to the aisle where they had the mass produced plastic ones. Most of them were priced 99 pesos. They looked like the old one at home, only different in color. I decided to have a look-see around for alternatives. The bottom shelves caught my eye. I knelt down on one leg and examined the shower heads. The one I looked at had thicker plastic, more durable it seemed. They were in four colors -- white, grey, beige and maroon. I decided to buy one of the grey colored showers for 199 pesos. If it broke, that would be OK. We were after all renting an apartment. It made sense to avoid splurging on fixtures.

When I got home, I immediately set off to install it. Since I was lacking the necessary plumbing implements, I used an equally dextrous pair of tools -- my hands. I unscrewed the old shower and tried screwing on the new one. After making sure that the new shower was a perfect fit, I unscrewed it and proceeded to apply a lot of Teflon tape to the pipe threads. It was a lot, I tell you. Enough to make the pipe a tight fit when I screwed it back onto the wall plumbing. After I was done, I proudly told the missus to wait until the next morning to try it. I said that in part to boost my handyman ego. But really, you can't be too careful. The water might leak out through the pipe`s threads if the Teflon wasn't totally set yet. But given the low water pressure in our neighborhood, I could get more pressure if I took a leak after downing a gallon or two of beer. A leak would be out of the question. Our shower has done fairly well, though. Enough so that I have thank myself every time I shower. :-))