Saturday, October 23, 2010

Plumbing repairs

Oh, the joys of home ownership.

Am I the only one who requires three trips to the hardware store for almost every job?

Trip #1: Get all the parts needed for the planned repair job.
Trip #2: Return some of those parts and get the correct parts.
Trip #3: Back to the store to get a vital part that I didn't think I'd need to replace when I started the job.

This project was no exception. Three trips required. This time is was plumbing that required my attention.
The mission: Stopping a leak in the toilet in the guest bathroom.
The plan: Rebuild the whole damned thing.
Complicating factors:
--Old plumbing that it was connected to that no longer wants to connect to the new stuff.
--Tight working quarters that restrict visibility and access to fittings.
--Hand hard-to-read instructions on everything because the building industry now insists on printing instructions in both American and Illegal so the font is microscopic.
Combined Aggravation Factor: 3.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.

End result: The neighbors' kids learned a few new words and phrases and Lagniappe is still hiding somewhere, but the job is now complete. Mission accomplished.

And at least this time, Lagniappe didn't "help".

6 comments:

  1. We keep a Home Depot orange bucket in our front closet and, when a new project comes up, we return what's in the bucket before buying 3X as much as we'll need including "There's no way I'll need that" and "That's surely the wrong part" parts.

    Then, what isn't actually needed for this new job ends up back in the Home Depot bucket in the front closet for the next trip.

    Somewhere I've got a picture of my four year old granddaughter under the sink on her back with a pipe wrench. She learned some new verbal as mechanical skills that day.

    It's our duty to pass along that wisdom to the next generation.

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  2. You left out the 3 or 4 days required to motivate oneself to complete the job (and the unusable toilet during the duration).

    Congtratulations!

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  3. Anonymous8:45 PM

    You get by with only three trips fro parts.What is you secret?

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  4. I HATE plumbing.

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  5. Oh yeah, BTDT sigh...

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  6. You see, that's why I keep coming back here. I thought it was just me. I had to change the battery cables on my Jeep. ("Where do all these cables go?") By the time I was done I had made five trips to two different auto parts stores.

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