Hear is the story if you're curious.
It was a simple "this won't take long at all" kind of a fix. The toilet was leaking, and I just needed to replace the supply line. Really, it's not that difficult really, right?
Riiigghtttt.
Wrong, so wrong. I removed the water supply line, and realized I also needed to replace the valve. When the valve comes off water will still be flowing so the main water shutoff to the house needed to be shut off. Up and down two flight of stairs, and got it taken care of. Tested the water by opening the valve, and it was fine (really it was!).
Then I went ahead to reattached the valve and supply line. Hmmm. The valve just didn't seem to want to thread onto the line easily. I though I could wait for more muscle to come home but in the meantime, I googled a video about replacing toilet supply lines. I know....common sense says to do that first. Too late. I found out that I needed Teflon tape to get the two reconnected easily, so I decided to just head over to Lowes after our guitar lesson in a bit. My niece and I were sitting and chatting at the kitchen table when we heard "thunk"....."thunk"......"thunk"..... It took me a while to relize the thunks were water drops, and the glass light fixture over the table was inches full of water.
Oops.
Of course at this point we have three issues: The boy is due to leave for his guitar lesson; I NOW know I can easily fix the problem with Teflon tape by going to Lowe's. I can't go to Lowes or the lesson because I'm mopping up water from unknown source and moving buckets as needed.
My niece and the boy rushed out the door to the guitar lesson. I stayed to mop water and figure out where it was coming from: I'm still not sure, but it's still coming. I can't leave the house with water coming into the fixture even to run to Lowes! So, I start calling plumbers, and have one that can be here in 2 hours tops.
The result? Boy got his guitar lesson, I kept the water damage to a minimum, the plumber showed on schedule and got the issue fixed in record time. I mean, like really really quickly.
The bad news? Teflon tape costs a few dollars. An emergency plumber visit costs $177. The good news? The water stopped, was cleaned out of the light fixture, and there has been no residual damage that we can see to date.
The embarrassing news? The writeup on the ticket, and I quote: " The customer attempted to repair the valve and water supply line without using Teflon tape." Ahggghhh....these silly DIY'rs...don't know what they're doing....it's good for business though.
But ah-HAH! Validation. I KNEW the right answer: Teflon tape!! Next time I just need to have it on hand. Before I start.
Stay tuned as I share more DIY fails, Pinterest fails, decorating fails and other mistakes that I have learning from.
