When my Good Deed.. Went BAD!

Ever start into something that you thought you were doing the right thing and then…

2 weeks ago I went to just change out our faucet in the kitchen.

I should say I have NO skills and go with the learn as we go method.

What started as a one hour project, I thought, quickly went south in a hurry.

Removing the old faucet with the plastic tabs that broke off and no room to move my hand combined with all the crap falling in my face started the fun.

Now, swearing heavily I had to remove the entire sink

at this point I do get the old faucet out and place the new one in, but the fittings do not work so we are on trip 4 to Menards.

I get all that figured out and the faucet leaks so I go to fix that and the handle gets turned around and I cannot figure out how to get it back?

2 hours later I have that fixed, Have no idea how, turn all the water on the low and behold I have a leak where the pipe runs into the floor and it is coming pretty fast

Now I am FUMING! Lots more bad words and a poor hand soap container getting smashed, I later see the water is not only running on the kitchen floor but in the basement as well. I quickly go to shop vac that up and the vac launches the water all over everything.

I know go turn off the water right? If I was not so stupid or so TICKED that may have occured to me but it did not.

I finally contact a friend of mine who shuts the water off for the night we go to Menards for the 8 time and get everything back together on sunday.

Totaled Damages:

12 hours of work time

1 new faucet

1 new shut off valve

3 new pieces of galvanized piping

handful of various fittings,

5,375 F-Bombs

1 soap container that got in the way

My 4 year old boys eye goggles that he loaned me. (Returned busted)

3 years of my life

Lastly, no sex since. Nor do I see it in the near future

Gosh I love that new faucet!

Good thing your kids didn’t get in the way

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5,375 F-Bombs

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Wow, You really kept it to a minimum didn’t you

I feel your pain Man .

I too took on a task that should have taken half an hour. Change out the guts of a toilet tank that was not working right.
4 hours later
three trips to home depot
Sore back from putting everything back together 6 times
plumbers putty everywhere
wet carpeting (why you would have and entire bathroom carpted I am still trying to figure out.

And last but not least the toilet tank is tilted.

Still .

And I am not touching it.

I will never ever wish to be a plumber again!!!!

I almost went postal on the toilet.

I am sure there are many of us out there. This could turn into an interesting thread.

Derek

Oh my that was a great laugh. Got to me when the shop vac sprayed everywhere Thanks for swallowing your pride and sharing that one. Many of us have the similar stories. It really gets a person upset when you have to run back n forth to the store to get things or return the wrong things. Thats where road rage comes in. I remember working on an a snowmobile once. I’ve never been so mad at a project. And when i was driving around getting parts back n forth I got the road rage bad,….I almost reached under the seat at on point. I live in Saint cloud where traffic/drivers are unreal. Then to try running around at around quitting time?,…….what a disaster. Thanks for the good laugh.

Same thing happened to me.
Started to put in a new sink found out I had the wrong fitting for this and the wrong fitting for that. Water all over the basement floor and my 5 yr old son laughing at me cause I’m getting all wet.
A 1 hr job ending up taking about 6hrs and 6 trips to the store. The guy at the hardware store said he see’s this stuff every weekend when people try to do the stuff themselves.

I don’t have the guts or the time to tell you all of my stories or how much “Jerry Rigging” can be done. I do know when you go to Menards and they finally say to you…”have you ever thought about hiring a professional?” then you know something went wrong.

I’m actually pretty good with plumbing and electrical stuff, it is the more mechanical stuff that gets me into trouble. Thanks for the laughs guys…

This didn’t involved too many trips to the store, actually only one, but it’s kinda humorous. I was installing a phone jack in our office, so we could get rid of the two phone cords that have run across our family room floor for the past two years. I decided to just spice into a phone line that was running along the rafters of our furnace room. I was about 90% sure that it was the line that ran up into my son’s room. So I got everything set to go, and decided to make the first cut. As I did, the doorbell rang. I didn’t really think anything about this, because I knew my son’s friend was going to be picked up soon, and figured that it was his mother. Wrong. Cut the doorbell wire. I went to strip the wires to splice it back together, and evertime I touched two wires, the doorbell rang. Drove our dog nuts. Ended up having to run a line along the rafters the length of the room.

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evertime I touched two wires, the doorbell rang. Drove our dog nuts.

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Priceless.

My favorite idiot moment was wiring up a new outlet for a friend in his basement. My buddy the psuedo electrician and I (the idiot electrician has been) have done this many times. Pulled out the breaker we were going to wire to but left the power on to the breaker box. We were going to be CAREFUL and who wants to work in the dark. While hooking the wire into the box, the long nosed pliers we were using touched a wire that happened to have a nick in the insulation. Looked like the fourth of July. I’ve never seen the end of a pliers burned off before, but it took the last inch of the pliers right off. At that moment I remembered why I don’t run electrical anymore. A pair of new shorts for my buddy and a new pliers and we were good to live another day.

I’ve been there too, toolshop 101 puts it lightly. Too me every swear word is placed right and really means something. lots of cussing for sure and if its any consolidation to any of us its good experience and its cheaper too, that depends on how a guy looks at it i guess. Theres nothing wrong with fixing the toaster if its not plugged in lol. I remember my stepdad trying to fix the television with it plugged in to the wall. I came home and my mother was laughing histerically. I asked whats was so funny and she said Harold just tried to fix the tv. with it plugged in. She pointed over to the screwdriver and said go look at it, sure enough the tip was completely burnt off. I said what happened and she said he touched something and it knocked him completely across the room and he hit his head on the wall. I talked to a tv repair man and he said the capacitors have huge amounts of stored voltage in them and if you touch them its blackeyes and burnt hair for sure. They threw the tv. out,,,and the screwdriver.

What is jerry rigging?

haywood, mendota & mossy – thanks for the laugh! i was literally rolling on the floor with tears a flowing…… can’t count the number of times i’ve ended up with similar results. now i need another cold one. thanks again and that would make a good comedy routine…….

I remember replumbing the upstairs bathroom in 1989. When I got done I had a hot water toilet. I guess that a big deal if you’re French? And our wife say we aren’t emotional enough?

You guys are making my day.

Mike W.

Plumber

Sounds like we could start a new show….. IDA Tool Time.

Two rules to remember. In plumbing, feces doesn’t run uphill and in electrical, all wires are hot unless you can see both ends.

Hey Sgt, There are 3 rules in being a plumber.
1. Your boss is an a$$hole
2 Crap runs downhill. And most importantly…
3. Dont chew your fingernails.

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I remember replumbing the upstairs bathroom in 1989. When I got done I had a hot water toilet.

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Kind of like a miniture whirlpool

Where do I start:

The deck-Nah
The dishwasher-Nah
The cable-Nah
The Crib-Yeah

I have the first born just days away, so I am getting the baby room ready. New paint, decorations, etc. Well after spending all day in that room I wanted to watch some TV so I decided to put the crib together in the living room. Well after 40 minutes it is all done.
Well it did not fit through the doorway
20 minutes to take apart and than carry every thing back in to the babies room. Another 35 minutes to get it back together again.

Ron

These stories are priceless. I sometimes find that cursing helps many situations, but more importantly I find that making up new ones is even more fun in the heat of battle.

Two weeks ago I decided to try to put my heavy LEER fiberglass topper back on my truck like I have done a couple times previous even though my brother said he would help in a couple hours. I got impatient and decided to tackle it myself. As I am lifting one edge of the topper onto the back of the taligate, the back end of the topper slid down the taligate and caught the edge of the truck bed and completely shattered the rear door/window. Now I have 4 million itsy bitsy pieces of glass laying in the garage stall. After 2 hours with the shop vac I place the busted topper back into the corner of the garage! Needless to say the nighbors and surrounding area heard my frustration!

Anyone want s free Black Leer topper that needs a new reay window?

Gee DZ that reminds me of my topper story. Throwing pop flys with the baseball for the kids to catch. “Come on Dad throw a real high one.” Hauled back and really layed into one. Hurt my arm but it went real high ……. and when it returned to earth it went right thru the glass of the open back lift gate on the topper. A few choice words and a piece of 1/4″ plywood later.

Tut i really did that too. I was working on this basement, plumbing wiring etc and it was a new job so following the game plan wasen’t that hard. I did all the wiring and that all checked out after testing the gfi’s and the main breakers, everything was looking good up to this point. The plumbing was going good too after air hammering the concrete out to put in the drain pipe for the toilet, this was a big if because of tolerances but i got it done with the right flow. I got everything done and tested the toilet and it worked like it was supposed to after flushing a 1/2 dozen times so i told them everything was ok and left for the day. I came back the next day to work and they said hey dan how come theres hot water in the toilet and i said what? they said yes so i went and checked it out with them following me down the basement stairs. Sure enough after i flushed it the tank filled up with hot water and they had thier water hot for thier hot tub etc. and all i could say is it won’t hurt anything and it will work better by keeping the bowl cleaner and toilet seat warmer, they laughed and asked if i would fix it right, i said yes. They still call me back when they need help, true trust i guess,,,