HOME FIX-UPS

HOME FIX-UPS
Hard lessons learned
Story: Mary and Bill McFadden had barely moved into their 40-year-old dream house in Elk Grove, Calif., when Mary noticed a small leak in the garage at the washing-machine hookup. "Because my husband was so busy on a project inside the house, I thought I'd be a helpful wife and surprise him by fixing the little plumbing problem myself." She worked hard "using all my strength" to turn a pipe. Turn it she did, until all of a sudden "it shot off with incredible force from the water behind it." Fortunately, she was off to one side. She could have been injured by the pipe or scalded by the hot water. But she still had a problem: The garage was filling up with hot water, soaking many still-unpacked boxes. After a futile attempt to stop the flow, she screamed for help. Bill came, but being new to the home, couldn't find the main water shutoff. Bill finally found a valve on the water heater that stopped the flow.
Lesson learned: "I no longer tackle things alone if I know nothing about them," Mary says, "and we will immediately locate the basic services if we ever move again."
Story: Tony Sarge of El Dorado Hills, Calif., once tried to drill a hole in the frame of a sliding-glass door to install a pin lock. His drill bit inadvertently nicked an edge of the glass. "What a symphony as the 4-foot by 6-foot glass broke right before my amateur locksmith's eyes," Tony says. "It started with a small crack ... and slowly spread outward until the entire glass pane was cracked in the most delightful mosaic pattern."
Lesson learned: Never drill near a pane of glass.
Story: Janet Walker of West Sacramento, Calif., is very fond of her 80-year-old father, Gene Orser, but ... Years ago Gene, a retired military man, volunteered to fix a tiny toilet leak for her. Even though Gene "is definitely not a fix-it man," she says, she agreed to let him help "because he's so sweet." Soon after he started, she heard him calling for help. She found him with his head lodged under the tank between the bowl and the wall. His forehead was bleeding, and the small leak was now a big one. "I managed to get him out and patch up his cut, which fortunately wasn't very serious, and turn off the valve to stop the water. Then he told me he couldn't get a bolt under the tank loose, so he hit it with a hammer. The hammer hit the tank and put a hole in it, and a piece of flying ceramic cut his head." She stifled a laugh and cleaned up the mess. The next day when she came home from work, there was a brand-new toilet in the bathroom, installed by a professional plumber and paid for by Gene. A week later, when he offered to fix a leak in her kitchen sink, Janet said: "Sure, I could use a shiny new sink." They both laughed ... but she called a plumber.
Lesson learned: "How to say 'no' to offers of help from my dad."