Two trips to Home Depot, Three men and two boys later

One of my outdoor faucets has been dripping precious water for over 2 years.  I could never seem to get it turned off tight enough.  John told me I probably needed a new faucet, but it seemed to me you'd have to take the siding off the house to get to it.  Instead I googled old faucet repair and the magic of the Internet told me what I needed to do, step by step.

I thought I had the right tools and discovered my crescent wrench wasn't big enough so off to Home Depot I go and a nice man listened to my story and sold me a 12" wrench for $19.95.  I worried a little that it wouldn't be able to turn it so the Home Depot man told me I could use a piece of pipe for more leverage.  Luckily it turned quite easily and I was able to also turn the valve inside my house that turned all the water off.

The folks on the Internet suggested I take the piece to the local hardware store so as to purchase the right washers, gaskets, etc.  That's when the fun began.  I showed it to the the man greeting people as they walked in the door.  He seemed certain a hose washer would work so he called a boy to help me and I got a little packages of hose washers, but this young boy wasn't too sure those would work so he sent me to Aisle 36, just to confirm the purchase with a plumber. There,  another young man looked at it and tried to get the little orange screw out and couldn't so off we go to the tool section and there another man took a look and together they decided a power tool would do the trick.  And yes, it did!  Tools sent me back to plumbing and I was told by yet another man that the orange washer needed to be replaced.  He started to pop it out, but it had sort of grown into the metal so off this man went back to the tool section.  Gosh he was gone for about 15 minutes and all I could think about was "they are going to ruin it and it's Sunday and I won't be able to turn my water back on."  The tool man and the plumbing man finally came back and said they had a heck of a time getting it out, but now they were ready to put in the new washer.  Try, try, try - the washer they'd selected just would not slip into the right place.  The man took his Xacto knife and scraped some more and it still wouldn't go in.  Eventually the plumbing boy came back and took another package of washers off the shelf and this time it worked!!!  I apologized and said I had no idea it would be such a lengthy process and one man responded, "neither did we."  I got the feeling that had they known, they would never have helped me in the first place.  The plumber man suggested more than once that I just needed to buy a new faucet.  "Too stubborn, "  I responded - why waste a good faucet when a $1.19 package of washers and screws will solve the problem?

It leaks no more.  Perhaps all the water I'll save over the next few years will eventually pay for the crescent wrench!  Thank you Home Depot men and boys!