Paying the piper...I mean Plumber
We live in a 30 year old semi-detached home in our little town. It is a pretty little house, 4 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, finished basement, large dining room/sitting room/my new office space type of deal, beautiful front yard with a driveway large enough to hold 3-4 cars and a great side and backyard.
There are two things that stink about my house....
1) the neighbors- it wasn't always like this, they just moved in a few years ago
2) the plumbing!
Not so very long ago, about a month ago or so... I went into our dining room to discover water all over the floor. I thought our little princess had a a bladder overflow (three times over there was so much water) and as I was standing there pondering how hard I could kick her little ass I felt a drip on my head. Look up, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but another drop of water directly from the ceiling overhead! (Sorry Princess)
I ran upstairs (okay, i didn't run but i moved quicker than usual) to see what was leaking? It appeared as though it was something to do with the toilet. I cursed a lot and called Handy Hubby....he cursed alot and shut the water off. For three days we went without a toilet upstairs until I could stand it no more and insisted that rather that shut the water off, we determine what was the real cause of the problem and determine if a plumber was required. Handy Husband finally determined after many minutes of deliverance that it was the valve tap that was leaking and that needed to be changed. His answer to that....leave the water off until he had time to actually fix it. My answer to that...put a container under the dripping tap and inform the Girls that everyone must check the container when they went to use the facilities to ensure no overflow. At least this way we would have use of the toilet on the second floor.
About two weeks later, after a couple (just a couple) of hints and gentle reminders, Handy Hubby decided to go to the source of the concern and really take a look.
"No problem" he claimed "a quick pick up at Home Depot and it will be fixed in no time" and off he went.
I immediately started calling around for plumbers.
Did you know that the minimum charge for a plumber to come to your house on the weekend is $250. plus parts and labour! I did not realize how expensive they had become. It was hard to get a real estimate on what the damage would be as I really didn't know that there would be a problem. I didn't want to tell them that I was just anticipating disaster! Anyway, with a general idea of what this might cost me, I did what any cheap, broke person would do. I hung up without making any arrangements. I mean really, I didn't want to have someone come out when I wasn't sure that Handy Hubby would screw this up too!
So, long story short, after Handy Hubby tried to fix it he realized that he couldn't do it and this time we couldn't even just put a container under the tap to contain the drip...this time we really had to turn the water off.
So we turned off the water and resorted to tripping down the stairs in our sleep to relieve our midnight needs and I began checking around with friends for the name of a reliable CHEAP plumber!
Turns out, I play pool with two plumbers and one of them used to date my oldest daughter in grade school....I figured, he was once family, he would do us a favour....for cheap right?
Not so!
He referred me to his buddy (the other pool playing plumber) and he agreed to call me when he had a minute to come over to the house and do it.
Being of sound and reasonable mind, I figured that would be within the next day or two.
Again not so!
One full week later, (yes I waited a full week, I'm CHEAP, I'm sure I said that earlier!) I finally called a friend and asked for his number. When I called him he responded that he needed to get a torch or something from his shop, but he would be over the next night to fix the problem.
He fixed the problem alright. It took him less than half an hour and when I asked him how much he reached out his hand for my weekly paycheck! Honestly! I should have just called a plumber out of the yellow pages for a regular non-emergency call! I wouldn't have had to risk falling down the stairs in my sleepiness when having to take a pee for a full week!
Lesson Learned? I dunno, next time I'm in the market for a house....get the plumbing checked?
There are two things that stink about my house....
1) the neighbors- it wasn't always like this, they just moved in a few years ago
2) the plumbing!
Not so very long ago, about a month ago or so... I went into our dining room to discover water all over the floor. I thought our little princess had a a bladder overflow (three times over there was so much water) and as I was standing there pondering how hard I could kick her little ass I felt a drip on my head. Look up, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but another drop of water directly from the ceiling overhead! (Sorry Princess)
I ran upstairs (okay, i didn't run but i moved quicker than usual) to see what was leaking? It appeared as though it was something to do with the toilet. I cursed a lot and called Handy Hubby....he cursed alot and shut the water off. For three days we went without a toilet upstairs until I could stand it no more and insisted that rather that shut the water off, we determine what was the real cause of the problem and determine if a plumber was required. Handy Husband finally determined after many minutes of deliverance that it was the valve tap that was leaking and that needed to be changed. His answer to that....leave the water off until he had time to actually fix it. My answer to that...put a container under the dripping tap and inform the Girls that everyone must check the container when they went to use the facilities to ensure no overflow. At least this way we would have use of the toilet on the second floor.
About two weeks later, after a couple (just a couple) of hints and gentle reminders, Handy Hubby decided to go to the source of the concern and really take a look.
"No problem" he claimed "a quick pick up at Home Depot and it will be fixed in no time" and off he went.
I immediately started calling around for plumbers.
Did you know that the minimum charge for a plumber to come to your house on the weekend is $250. plus parts and labour! I did not realize how expensive they had become. It was hard to get a real estimate on what the damage would be as I really didn't know that there would be a problem. I didn't want to tell them that I was just anticipating disaster! Anyway, with a general idea of what this might cost me, I did what any cheap, broke person would do. I hung up without making any arrangements. I mean really, I didn't want to have someone come out when I wasn't sure that Handy Hubby would screw this up too!
So, long story short, after Handy Hubby tried to fix it he realized that he couldn't do it and this time we couldn't even just put a container under the tap to contain the drip...this time we really had to turn the water off.
So we turned off the water and resorted to tripping down the stairs in our sleep to relieve our midnight needs and I began checking around with friends for the name of a reliable CHEAP plumber!
Turns out, I play pool with two plumbers and one of them used to date my oldest daughter in grade school....I figured, he was once family, he would do us a favour....for cheap right?
Not so!
He referred me to his buddy (the other pool playing plumber) and he agreed to call me when he had a minute to come over to the house and do it.
Being of sound and reasonable mind, I figured that would be within the next day or two.
Again not so!
One full week later, (yes I waited a full week, I'm CHEAP, I'm sure I said that earlier!) I finally called a friend and asked for his number. When I called him he responded that he needed to get a torch or something from his shop, but he would be over the next night to fix the problem.
He fixed the problem alright. It took him less than half an hour and when I asked him how much he reached out his hand for my weekly paycheck! Honestly! I should have just called a plumber out of the yellow pages for a regular non-emergency call! I wouldn't have had to risk falling down the stairs in my sleepiness when having to take a pee for a full week!
Lesson Learned? I dunno, next time I'm in the market for a house....get the plumbing checked?
posted by Anonymous at 10:41 am
2 Comments:
OH..NOT good. We live in house that is close to 100..the pipes have been replaced one. We only have one bathroom. Right now we have a handly bowel under the kitchen sink, hubby has been meaning to get to that for a few months now..so we could hook up my brand frickin new dish washer..we use paper plates right now. Sometime owning a home sucks.
Oh man, plumbing sucks. It's crazy how quickly it gets expensive.
My mother had 4 daughters and she always said to us:
One will marry a plumber.
One will marry an electrician.
One will marry a mechanic.
One will marry a contractor.
That about covers the bases, doesn't it?
Of course, we didn't actually find our plumbers and mechanics, but it was a good thought.
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