Why is that whenever you hear “plumbing” the price tag for whatever follows is enormous? We try to do almost everything ourselves (and by ourselves, of course, I mean Mr. Bargains does it and I “help” by supervising and being an assistant), in part to ensure things are done to our standards but also to save money. Over the years we’ve done many plumbing projects together, my husband and me- some little, some big- almost all stressful. My husband can handle just about anything in terms of fixing, repair, remodel or construction, but he hates plumbing. Hates it.
I remember gutting our old bathroom and since we had to move the plumbing stack in the bathroom, we got to do some demo work. Beside myself with excitement that *I* was going to be allowed to wield a sledgehammer, I didn’t stop to ask many questions and in my overzealousness, took him quite literally when he cautioned me to be careful to not get anything in my eyes as I swung the sledgehammer.
So, I did what any dippy dummy would do. I shut my eyes and swung the hammer. Hard.
I didn’t get a single thing in my eyes. Nope. Not me.
My right knee had a baseball sized lump sticking off the side of it for weeks and the bruising lasted well over a month.
But I got nothing in my eyes. Do I get points for that? (PLEASE NOTE: For safety, I do not recommend you try this at home. Try safety goggles and always look when you swing a sledgehammer. Really, I’d say look when you swing any sort of tool. It’s probably better for everyone involved).
Haha, and all, but plumbing is no joke. Well, the cracks about, well, plumber’s cracks are…but plumbing is serious business and when plumbing gets messed up far more serious things can happen than a banged up knee. Where we used to live, we were on a sewer line and kept having drainage issues- come to find out several hundred dollars later and a full day rental of a very long plumbing snake thingy that cost a lot and was just very, very dirty and gross- we had tree roots that had grown into and through our sewer line. By some luck we were able to get a larger snake in there and knock out those roots that had grown in, but I remember a neighbor not being so lucky and she had to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to repair and replace the line.
We’ve had many plumbing headaches, and thankfully, knock on wood, we’ve not yet needed to call a plumber. Yet. We do have three little kids who have a love of hiding things- so I sit and wait, with a list of people to call, just in case…because haven’t we all seen the funny home video shows where there’s a car, an action figure, a watch dropped in the toilet? Or a flashlight?
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lindy says
This is too funny, though the knee incident sounded extremely painful! Ouch!! But DIY is still a better way to go in my opinion. It saves you sooo much money (as long as you don’t end up in the ER)! 🙂 I have four kids of my own and unfortunately we’ve had the plumber out many times. We usually use the same company and so whenever one of their plumbers show up they almost always start off by saying, “Aren’t you the ones who…” You can fill in the blank with just about anything, because yes, we’ve had it happen. Including action figures and blocks. What’s worse is that my family is memorable enough for the plumbing company to talk about behind our backs. 😛