Over our years of home ownership my husband has assembled a fairly good library of how-to-fixit manuals and books. Plumbing and electrical primarily. And over our fifty years and more of home ownership he has done more than his share of hands-on repairs in all manner of ways, including installing electrical systems extending our various basements' use for home living with a growing family.

I can recall dripping faucets, back at a time when there were no dripless faucets and washers had to be changed continually, a real headache, particularly in hard-to-reach spots under cabinets. I remember once, sitting at dinner with our children in their pre-teen years, when we suddenly became aware that the light fixture above the kitchen table was dripping.

My husband whipped into action, shutting off the water supply and soon ascertained that the bathtub tap upstairs over the kitchen to which access was only possible through cutting a hole in the clothes cupboard in our youngest child's bedroom was responsible. Our budget was too tight to call in a professional, and my husband managed to fix that leak. It could have resulted in a real catastrophe.

In our current house, built 23 years ago, the plumbing that was installed was far superior to anything any of our previous houses had. But about ten years ago my husband decided he would install ceramic floors in the laundry room, powder room, kitchen and breakfast room. While he was about it he decided to half-tile the walls as well; to the ceiling in the case of the breakfast room. And since he was doing all of that he decided to rip out all the sink counters, re-build them and tile them as well.

With that came the decision to replace the faucets in the kitchen and the powder room, and he decided to buy quality. American Standard had a model that came fitted with a filter, so that was what he opted for; the filter requires changing whenever it becomes clogged with the minute flotsam it removes to cleanse our potable water of impurities. The one in the powder room is produced by Kohler, and both come with lifetime guarantees.

When problems have arisen over the years - and a few have - my husband simply calls the manufacturer's long-distance line and they immediately courier out a replacement part. This happened yesterday when it seemed the one-handle bathroom fixture had somehow begun leaking. My husband went on-line to get information on how to disassemble the fixture, and then called the company to discuss the situation.

The woman who responded knew exactly what had gone wrong, described for my husband the technique he would use in fixing it, and immediately sent out a replacement part. Sometimes buying quality makes good sense.