Having fixed the garbage disposal, Dawn in Longmont, Colorado, was feeling pretty invincible. Her shower was leaking and she was sure it couldn’t be that difficult to fix….
“Before I tackled it, I got on the internet and found leaking faucets and they actually had a little video, like a how-to and it walked me through,” said Dawn.
After watching the video a couple of times and taking notes, Dawn was ready. Down to the crawl space to shut off the water she went and then to the shower where she got all the components off except .. “I, could not, for the life of me get the piece off that I needed to do. So I put it all back together.”
Off she went to the hardware store, bought a valve wrench and then back home for attempt #2. Still no luck. At this point Dawn was ready to concede. “I did end up calling the plumber and I was furious.”
The plumber arrived along with his two sons and even though Dawn got the sense they didn’t want her watching – well, it was a little cramped in the bathroom – she stayed and watched.
“It took them literally eight minutes. They did everything I did but the difference was they had a lock wrench they hooked on to this valve stem and they just gave it a little more elbow grease than I did. All they did was replace a tiny little rubber O ring. That’s it. On both the hot water and the cold and they put it all back together. That was $100. I was livid.”
At this point you might be thinking this doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment. But listen to what Dawn said next.
“OK, that’s fine. I just paid for a $100 training session. Then I went and did the whole thing, bought the O ring, turned off the water, did everything they did and I replaced all that stuff in my other bathroom. At that I thought, it’s just about knowing I can accomplish it.”
I found a helpful how-to and video on repairing leaky faucets at doityourself.com. Maybe Dawn’s got you thinking about a home repair that’s been waiting to be done? Is there a resource you’ve found especially helpful for your home projects? I’m thinking maybe, just maybe I could replace all those brass-colored faucets in my bathrooms … hhhmm.