Thursday, October 08, 2009

DIY - Not

Who knew that the readers of this blog are, to a man, an army of rabid do-it-yourselfers who would never pay a plumber anything close to 700 dollars for the installation of a new faucet?

I told Larry what y'all told me yesterday:

Honey, everyone says that we should install the faucet ourselves.

(Silence)

They say it's easy.

Who? Who says it's easy?

You know, the commenters on my blog...

You're listening to imaginary voices again? Since when do they offer plumbing help?

Someone I know in real life says so, too. She says her husband always installs his own faucets.

Good for him!

They're making me feel extravagant.

That's because you weren't blogging in 1997.

1997?

You know, when we bought our first house? The fixer-upper?

No. We didn't even have Internet then. We were broke.

Yes. And I said, "Don't worry, honey. We can tear out all the fixtures in the bathrooms and put in new ones ourselves the month before we move in. It's easy. And way cheaper than paying a plumber..."

Oh. Oh, yes - I do remember.

Was that fun?

No.

Was it easy?

No.

Did you like living without bathroom sinks for months?

Not really....

Do you remember how we finally gave up and that weird handyman you found in the classifieds was at our house on Halloween installing bathroom sinks?

He wasn't weird...

Yes, he was. What was he doing at our house on Halloween night? And he did a crappy job. Remember how he spent all of Easter weekend with us, including Easter morning, installing ceiling fans? Do you remember feeding him dinner?

He was very inexpensive.

Right. That's why I am paying a top-notch plumbing operation with a proven track record to install my kitchen faucet. I have nothing to prove here. I cannot do plumbing. I do not like plumbing. I am not a plumber.


All righty, then...

18 comments:

  1. Hahahahahaha, well all I can say is quit feeling guilty about replacing the faucet if he says you need to hire the plumber.

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  2. I just had to check and make sure I didn't say it was easy. Whew! Because the last time I needed a faucet replaced, I had my brother do it. He's a real fix-it man and it took him quite a while.

    But I still want to know if the plummer wears a tux! ;)

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  3. Gotta love a Hubby who acknowledges his own limitations.

    Boy I wish mine would. :P

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  4. Even with a plumber installing it, I still think $700 is ridiculous. That faucet better be made of gold!

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  5. I just ran to the bottom of the stairs and yelled up to MY hubby, a carpenter/fix-it man expert. He says that for a plumber to come to your house and install a faucet should cost you no less than 50 dollars and up to 100 maybe. The faucet itself can run anywhere from 100-600 dollars.

    If you lived any closer, he could run over and install it for you...

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  6. Check with the manufacturer of the broken faucet. Most brands (Moen, Delta, etc.) are lifetime guarantee and if you call them they will send you a new one for free. Then you just have to pay the plumber for intallation.

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  7. If he feels that strongly about it then it is probably for the best that he hire it out.

    You don't need any wrench throwing, cussing, plumbers cracks when it isn't necessary

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  8. So, still no tap in the kitchen? Not a happy situation to be in.

    Even the same plumber will change their call-out fee depending on the local demand. High demand = high fee, low demand = cheap fix but he'll stick around for ages chatting because he don't have another job to go to next. Personally I'd rather pay more because the sorts of things I've had plumbers chat to me about don't bear repeating!

    Hope it's fixed soon!

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  9. There's a reason my husband's blog name is Mr. Fix-it. He'd cut off his arm before paying a plumber $700 for a faucet. Hmmm. Mayve he should become a plumber!

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  10. I agree with the lesson that was learned here. If you don't know how to do it then pay someone who does! And do it quickly! My parents didn't know how to fix anything but they would wait literally YEARS to have repairs done. Our dishwasher was broken throughout my most crucial teenage years.

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  11. Seriously, I personally have installed a kitchen faucet and three bathroom faucets and it wasn't very hard. It's not like I'm a fix-it kind of person AT ALL.
    Look, I even blogged about it:
    http://beehiveandbirdsnest.blogspot.com/2008/10/jennie-plumber.html

    (Sorry, I know it's tacky to link to your own blog, but it's appropriate here, right?)

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  12. Listen to Larry! No, really. Although $700? Really?? That seems high, but what do I know - my DAD installed my kitchen sink faucet.

    You know - the one you have to turn on by turning the handles BACKWARDS?

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  13. I hate paying the plumber $600 to do something that takes him 45 minutes... but it's better than me spending six hours, $200, breaking everything, flooding my basement, backing up the drains and then having to pay him $600 anyway.

    At least, that's what I tell myself when I'm forking over the dough. It's the best I can do to keep myself from crying...

    ~Luke

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  14. My dad, who is handy, even says that plumbing is harder than electrical work. For what that's worth. Imaginary voices...that's funny. I dare not tell D that one because he'll totally start using that phrase too.

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  15. Well, OK. But $700 is still WAY too much.

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  16. There are certain tasks that I don't even open my mouth to suggest we do. I, instead, open the phone/checkbook.

    Hence the strange man traipsing in the back yard on a daily basis checking the squirrel traps.

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  17. Your husband knows his limitations! That's a GREAT thing! (And be glad it's not 1997 and you can afford a professional!)

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  18. Do you think you could use his logic to score yourself a brand new dishwaher?

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