When in the middle of buying a house, nobody ever thinks about all of the drawbacks. Do you know what I mean? Now a home owner for over four years, I really appreciate when we were living in our apartment. Those were the days. When something went wrong I only had to dial one number to report it. Something leaking, AC not working, drain backing up, no matter what I called the landlord. Ah, the simplicity!
Now, the problems are all ours. We have to find the problem and figure out who to call if we deem the problem above what we are able to work on ourselves. I love my hubby, but where JL can build a computer from scratch. . . . he is lacking in the home repair area. We have learned over the four years of owning this house that we do not try things when it comes to be electricity or plumbing issues. This is mainly because of the age of our house.
So back to where I was yesterday when I mentioned that the plumber was here. I asked if anyone wanted to guess how long he was here working.
The answer . . . . . just over 4 hours!
Can you see me panicking as the time kept going by?
Project #1 – The leak under the sink. This was "easy" according to the plumber. All he had to do was fix things that were done previously that were wrong. In doing this he had to remove more of the backing and wall going to the pipes.
Project #2 – I mentioned to him that that sink was constantly plugging up and has since we have lived here. I would venture to say this was where most of the time was spent. According to the plumber this clog was likely haunting this house for 8-10 years. He actually had to attack it from our attic. This was during lunch time and poor JSL was spooked when the snake from upstairs suddenly came out the wrong way. The snack actually came out of the bathroom sink when it should have continued down to the basement. Ooops! End product – the clog was fixed and the sink is working amazingly well!
Project #3 – I asked the plumber to look at our bathtub to see if he could give an estimate on how to fix the leaks in our nobs. Unfortunately, the parts are no longer made for our antiqued system. He explained what would have to be done to ultimately fix the problem. Basically it means and entire bathroom rehaul! You know spending $10-20K at least . . . . yikes! So as I tried to steady my breathing I asked if he could at least snake that drain and help us to delay the emergency of the situation. I was amazed at how quickly that drain cooperated. They were able to attack it from two spots and it was over.
This particular plumber bills later (he is very old fashioned, but so thorough). I sort of pressured him for a ball park estimate on the work done. Thankfully he was under the $100 an hour that most plumbers locally charge. Not too shabby, but we shall see what happens when the actual bill arrives.
Ah, the "joys" of owning a house . . . specifically an older one.
