I hate plumbing. Whenever a faucet begins to leak or a drain clogs, my stomach sinks. I know it means hours of frustrating work. It’s not that plumbing is difficult \u2014 it’s just that I’m not well-versed in the ways of home-improvement. Somehow I missed that part of Manhood Training.<\/p>\n
Despite my apprehension, over thirteen years of homeownership, I’ve made it a point to do as much repair work as I’m able. It has saved me a lot<\/i> of money. And while I’m a ball of nerves going into a project, I get tremendous satisfaction when I finish something and know that I<\/b><\/i> did the work with my own hands.<\/p>\n
Yesterday we woke to find water on the floor of the upstairs bathroom. When we couldn’t immediately locate the source of the leak, we debated calling a plumber. Because it was the weekend, and because we’re trying to save money, Kris and I decided to tackle the problem as a team. While she buried herself in the Readers Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual<\/a><\/b><\/i>, I took the toilet apart. Ultimately we diagnosed the likely culprit: corroded fasteners connecting the tank of the toilet to the bowl. We drove to the hardware store, picked up replacement parts, and then put Humpty Dumpty back together again.<\/p>\n We were able to repair our toilet for $6.49 and an hour of time. Had we called in a plumber, it would have cost much more. This is how home repairs usually seem to play out for us: some initial frustration, a Eureka! moment, a trip the hardware store for a $10-$20 part, and then a final repair.<\/p>\n Here are some things we’ve learned when dealing with home repairs:<\/p>\n Home-improvement can be intimidating if you don’t have much experience with it. But with time, you can<\/i> develop the confidence and the basic skills necessary to perform many common household repairs. If you’re interested in developing further competence, take classes from your local community college, or attend seminars at a home-improvement store. (I’ve also learned a lot by shadowing contractors as they work on our home. I always ask permission first, though. Some are happy to explain what they’re doing, but others are nervous to have an observer.)<\/p>\n Next on my home repair agenda: Diagnosing why the light in our guest room sometimes<\/i> switches on, but mostly doesn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I hate plumbing. Whenever a faucet begins to leak or a drain clogs, my stomach sinks. I know it means hours of frustrating work. It’s not that plumbing is difficult \u2014 it’s just that I’m not well-versed in the ways of home-improvement. Somehow I missed that part of Manhood Training.<\/p>\n Despite my apprehension, over thirteen years of homeownership, I’ve made it a point to do as much repair work as I’m able. It has saved me a lot<\/i> of money. And while I’m a ball of nerves going into a project, I get tremendous satisfaction when I finish something and know that I<\/b><\/i> did the work with my own hands.<\/p>\n Yesterday we woke to find water on the floor of the upstairs bathroom. When we couldn’t immediately locate the source of the leak, we debated calling a plumber. Because it was the weekend, and because we’re trying to save money, Kris and I decided to tackle the problem as a team. While she buried herself in the Readers Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual<\/a><\/b><\/i>, I took the toilet apart. Ultimately we diagnosed the likely culprit: corroded fasteners connecting the tank of the toilet to the bowl. We drove to the hardware store, picked up replacement parts, and then put Humpty Dumpty back together again.<\/\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[476,484],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n