A year or two ago my sister-in-law described me as having a Can Do attitude. I liked that. Made me strut a little. When you are coping alone with an old house and its problems, it is good to think you can do it.

But since the beginning of the new year, i think that attitude was flagging a bit. It has been a tough year in terms of home repairs, and the slow recovery from my knee surgery had an impact, too. I felt more inclined to call on others for help which is not necessarily a bad thing. And maybe I was becoming more realistic about what I could do.

So I am feeling a bit puffed up today over my success in replacing the leaking hose for my pull-out Blanco kitchen faucet. When I discovered the puddle inside the kitchen cabinet Wednesday night and identified that the hose was leaking every time I turned on the faucet, I simply sighed, went into the study, and in my Daytimer wrote down the first task for Thursday morning: Call the Plumber.

But the next day I thought maybe I should see how hard it would be to make the repair myself. On YouTube I found a video made by Blanco detailing step by step how to replace the faucet hose. To order the replacement part, they gave an e-mail address and a phone number. I pulled out the accordion folder holding all the information about the home improvements we had made to the house over the years, found the Blanco faucet description, and sent an e-mail to Blanco. They replied asking for my shipping address. That was Thursday.

Today is Saturday, and the replacement hose was in my mailbox. Hoorah for Blanco customer service! I watched the video again and then followed the steps: turn off the cold and hot water and undo the hose under the sink. I struggled to disconnect the flexible metal hose, finally resorting to a pliers. Darned thing would not turn. Just as I was ready to give up, the connection loosened. The spray head  was easy to disconnect from the hose, but pulling the hose out of the opening took a lot of wiggling and coaxing. Putting the new hose on was easy, and when I turned the water back on there were no leaks.

This was not a difficult repair but it lifted my spirits. I guess my Can Do attitude is still there.