DIY jobs rarely turn out to be simple. For example, our kitchen tap has begun dripping again recently. I have checked and cleaned the cartridges before, which helped for a while, but we decided it was worth upgrading to a new tap unit. The one we’ve picked has more clearance above the draining board for the hot and cold levers and also a more elevated curve on the tap, which will make it easier to fill kettles and pots with water.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be impossible to access the tops of the hot and cold feed pipes where we need to screw on the flexi-hoses. We can’t reuse the existing ones because you need to turn them round to screw into the tap body and there isn’t space to get into the bolts that fit to the pipes. I think the previous tap must have been fitted at the same time the sink went in without thought for subsequent maintenance.

I think the solution will be to extend the hole through which the existing flexi-hoses come out. This should give the access we need. I might have been able to wangle it with our existing tools but it would have been slow work. I decided it would be worth investing in an oscillating multitool, a device that can be turned to multiple tasks including hard cuts in tight corners. Screwfix had one I was able to pick up this afternoon but I went for the cordless option (to avoid having to mess with a power lead in those tight corners) so the batteries needed to be charged up.

So, we’ll catch the drips for another day or two and come back to the task when we can can work on it in daylight again… hopefully without more snags.