I would say that I'm mechanically inclined. I love to take things apart to see how they work, and have loved it ever since I was a kid. Heck, my big brother and I used to take apart all our toys.
Anyway, I don't consider myself a poor hand at fixing things if necessary. I just don't like to tackle problems when I'm unfamiliar with them. And after living here in Frankenhaus for a few years, I'm well aware of how much trouble an uninformed "do-it-yourself"er can cause.
So when there's a problem, I'm always in favor of calling in the pros to fix it. That way it gets done right. Yes? But what happens when the problem is clearly something that we should be able to handle on our own?
Well, our bathtub is pathetic. Since we moved in, the handle for the faucet has been missing. We quickly figured out how to turn it on without a handle, and didn't think much of it. Every once in awhile we'd say, "we oughta get that fixed" but it wasn't worth calling a plumber for, and we always forgot to mention it when the plumbers did come out to fix the bigger problems.
Recently the shower diverter on the spout started to give out. It got to the point where it was rather difficult to get enough water up to the shower to actually get a shower. Hubby-Eric figured out a way to jam the diverter closed during a shower though, and we went along hardly thinking about it.
Well, not hardly. I thought about it every morning when I took my shower. Clearly, a trip to the hardware store was warranted. And since hubby-Eric is swamped with school stuff, it was entirely up to me.
Helping to make my decision was the mess the router and its wires were making in the hallway. I wanted to get the hardware to mount the router on the wall and string the wires up. Yes, definitely a trip to the hardware store.
So yesterday morning, after working a bit on my con report, I decided to visit the local Home Depot. I pulled out our Home Depot home repair book that we'd gotten some time ago to help us diagnose problems, and went to the bathroom with the book and some tools.
Frankenhaus quickly showed its true colors, as the spout had the characteristics of one type of spout, but was definitely the other type... jammed on as was usual in these situations. Taking the handle off was harder, as everything was rusted together. I cleaned it the best I could, put everything in a plastic bag, and headed down to the Home Depot.
The bathroom section was a dizzying array of a whole bunch of fittings that looked absolutely nothing like the one I had in my bag. So I waited for an employee to come along, held out my bag and said, "Help!"
He took out the pieces, asked questions, and was able to figure out which spout I actually needed pretty quickly. But the handle! He had nothing that looked like those fittings, and in fact claimed to have never seen one like it before. My heart sunk through the floor as he described a plumbing store out on Aurora that might be able to help me. An elderly gentleman waiting for help with some shower fittings suggested that I try McLendon Hardware, which had a location just down the street. The Home Depot employee seemed to think they wouldn't be able to help me, but it was better than driving out to Seattle.
With one problem "settled", I went to find the hardware to mount the router on the wall, and get the wires off the floor. That was amazingly easy. They actually make neat brackets for stringing up cable, and those were perfect for what I needed. I spent a little too long looking in the nails/bolts section for them, though. All the stuff I needed was in the electrical section. Duh.
With the router completely dealt with, I drove into the traffic nightmare that is Woodinville to go to McLendon. Yeah, it was less than a mile, but whenever I drive in Woodinville I find myself wishing I was driving somewhere else.
McLendon is a complete contrast to Home Depot. Crowded with stuff so you're almost claustrophobic... small, friendly. I located the plumbing section after a moment and headed back there. I was sure I wasn't going to find what I needed on my own, so I waited for a moment until an employee quickly spotted me and offered help.
I held out my bag and he looked at the fittings. Then he said, "Ah, yes, Price-Pfister! They don't make these anymore!" and dashed off down the aisle and came back with identical fittings and said, "This company makes replacements for these, so this is what you want." Some of the parts were plastic instead of metal, and I wasn't entirely convinced, but he pulled out a big book of plumbing parts and showed me how it fit together. Having just pulled it apart, I recognized the bits and pieces. He explained how to get it back together, and I thanked him about a zillion times then went to buy the faucet, gushing to the checker about how quickly he'd solved my problem.
Next time I'm going to McLendon first.
And yes, repairs went smoothly. The spout went on nicely, and the handle fit just as he said. I put the router up on the wall and strung the ethernet cables off the floor. For the first time in a long time I can enter my room without having to step over a tangle of cable. And while it doesn't look pretty, it's a lot nicer than it was.
Ah! That wonderful feeling of accomplishment! It's nice that something went right for a change...
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