Overcoming the Fear of Plumbing

It's not that I have fear of pipes and fixtures, it's an anxiety about fixing problems with them. It probably comes from a time when I was a kid in the crazy old (1870s Victorian) house I grew up in. I was turning a shut-off valve under the bathroom sink only to have it break off and start spewing everywhere. I can't think of why I was turning the valve...always being the tinkering type I was probably just messing around with it. Maybe it's just my nature that I have no fear of messing around with anything electrical, mechanical or biological, but the thought of "wet work" like plumbing with it's attendant bloody knuckles and foul smells simply makes me uneasy.

Anyhow, there are several plumbing issues we knew would have to be taken care of when we moved in 2 months ago: the spray hose in the kitchen sink has a leak so we have to leave the sprayer lying down in the sink because it will drip down under the sink when positioned in its mount, the dishwasher didn't work - apparently because the copper tubing supply line had a big crimp, the downstairs toilet apparently has a bad wax wing.

A month or so ago, wanting to get a worst-case scenario of what it would cost to have someone do this work (worst-cost scenario as I call it) I called "Mister Rooter" as seen on TV to come give an estimate. The estimate was far higher than I'd have guessed so we're like "Screw that, we'll do it ourselves".

Last weekend, with Thanksgiving dinner for 8 approaching, we decided to tackle the kitchen plumbing items. I'd bought a new sprayer assembly at Lowes (that place is so dangerous) and we figured we'd tackle that first since it seemed the easiest. No matter what we tried we couldn't get the old hose disconnected. Of course the connection is in the most awkward spot right at the base of the faucet. No combination of wrenches and vise grips in that tight space would give us a good grip to unscrew it. After an hour of cursing and bleeding knuckles we gave up and moved on to the dishwasher.

I'd bought a 60 inch dishwasher flex hose in the same "just got a house" shopping spree as the sprayer hose, huge gas grille of my dreams, air conditioners and randow pieces and parts. So we pulled the old girl out from under the counter, yanked out the battered copper supply line, hooked up the flex line, turned the dial to Wash and got nothing but a click and a hum. Fie! It looks like a bad solenoid valve. Now, that dishwasher was no great loss. It was outmoded and dirty on the outside and alarmingly filthy on the inside, especially for a machine that's suppsed to make things clean.

Fortunately we had a backup: When we moved in, the sellers had left a lot of stuff in the garage along with the cut-up remains of the derelict Jacuzzi in the back yard. I had them pick up all the junk but kept a fairly new looking dishwasher as a consolation prize. On closer examination last weekend it looked as though that machine had its wiring brutally cut at an odd point so we admitted defeat for the day.

The next morning I went to look online for the manual for the skanky old Kenmore only to find that Sears doesn't seem to offer these things online. That's ridiculous! I found the manuals for the Frigidaire model in the garage in about 3 seconds. With the manuals on-screen I quickly realized that all I needed to do was splice a few wires into the junction box and we'd be good to go. Off to the hardware store for wire! After an hour or so of digression to map out all the circuit breakers in the house we hooked up that puppy, hit the start button and heard good things happening in there. As we prepared to slide the machine back under the counter we realized that the flexline was too short so off to plumbing supply store for a 72" one.

So we got it all in place and ran it through a cycle only to realize that the supply for the dishwasher was welded to the cold water line. WHY??!!! Off to a different plumbing supply house for a T-connecter. Finally, a working dishwasher!

This is all a long way of saying we're thrilled we fixed it ourselves (and saved some coin), my fear of plumbing is fading, I need to buy more tools, and having a Dishwasher after a Thanksgiving dinner for 8 is a very good thing!

We'll fix that damn sprayer even if we have to pull out the whole faucet to do it! The thought of changing the wax ring on the toilet still makes me queasy though.