New Faucets for Bath and Kitchen

Yep, I bought new faucets during my shopping trip today.  My handy dandy handyman, Kevin, told me to buy some, that it would be less expensive to replace them than to repair the drips they'd developed that were driving me insane!  See the prior post for details.  I should add, the kitchen faucet is about 11 years old, the upstairs bath faucet is as old as this house, 22 plus years.  Hmmmm, guess they've served their purpose!

Not ever having paid much attention to faucets in my entire life until now -- see what you've done to me, people! -- I'd always shopped for cheapest rather than balancing esthetics and cost, or going purely for esthetics no matter what the cost, eek!  So, this time, when my buddy Ann drove me to Menard's earlier today, I was looking at esthetics for the first time in my faucet-shopping life.  Woo woo!

Moen brand, which currently resides in Maison Newton, was on sale at Menard's but, wouldn't you know it, I did not like a single Moen faucet I saw.  Perhaps if Ann and I had gone to one of the new super-large Menard's, but we went to the one that was closest to my house after we had breakfast out.  It is now probably the smallest of the local Menard's stores.  But we love it anyway.

Picture of current upstairs bath faucet (gross warning!):

Look at all that water in the sink from the non-stop drip drip drip...  Yeah, single faucet action, that's okay but the acrylic handle is not cool.  It's all scratched up and murky from 22 years of scrubbing to get the gunk off of it, and there's still gunk, even after removing the center top-piece and cleaning under that time and time again.  Time for a new look. 

I was looking for an oiled bronze finish faucet for the upstairs bathroom but no luck there.  There were only three faucets shown in bronze and I didn't like any of them -- and the finish was way too dark, too.  The kicker as ridiculously high prices, sheesh. 

Then, I saw one faucet in a brushed-nickel finish that I really liked, but brushed nickel would just not do in my bathroom, which has some (light-colored) oiled bronze, some shiny brass and some shiny chrome finishes.  And so, I looked for and found the same style in shiny chrome, but I did not like it as much as in the brushed-nickel finish. 

Up and down that aisle, up and down, up and down, looking looking looking.  Wish there'd been a bigger selection, but then again, maybe not!  I'd never be able to make up my mind if there was an endless selection!

I did like this style, someone similar to the brushed nickel faucet I liked but a wee bit simpler, in chrome, and so I bought it.  As I was not swapping out the bathtub-shower fittings and they are chrome, the fittings will continue coordinate, additional savings.

Here is what I finally picked out, at a cost of $39.99:

I wanted a two-handle faucet after all those years of single twist/turn action, and I love the elegant wing-like look of the hot/cold handles!  It is a sleek yet graceful design.  Price was right, too.  Kevin told me it didn't make any difference if I bought a two-handle or a single-handle faucet, either would fit.  So, I took him at his word. We'll see...

Significantly, I picked out my kitchen faucet first, because I figured it would be - and so it proved to be - the easier choice.

Here is what I have now:

Blah.  Functional but blah.  And where did that white spray head come from?  In the set that B-I-L Fred replaced for me at least 10 years ago.  Yikes!

So, I went for a different look.  I was shocked at how much money one can pay for a kitchen sink faucet.  This is what I settled upon:

Yep, Jan is coming into the 21st century with a goose-neck faucet and - check out those bird-wing handles :)  I think there is a beak on the spray too (kidding!)  This cost $47.99.  So, heading into 2013...