Wulfgar vs The Leaky Pipe

The imbecile that owned our house before us was sent to jail for tax evasion. He was a general contractor in the housing trade. It’s easy to see why he was caught, because the “fixes” he’s done around the house are so ignorant that they border on the obscene. My plumbing is nowhere near code, my electrical system is a joke, and the general construction is…shall we say…interesting. The best part? All those discrepancies will need to be fixed before we can sell.

photo by Dan4th, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan4th/

My wife often asks me why I choose to fix things around the house that no one will see for years. Why do I obsess more than I should to make it right, when we’re trying to just make it “good enough” to sell and move elsewhere?

Here’s an example why…

About a week ago while working in the yard, I noticed the outside spigot-the place where you attach your garden hose-was leaking. I tried to tighten it down, and that worked a little bit, but not completely. I had other pressing matters, so I forgot about it.

Today, I remembered it, so I went down to the basement to deal with it. We have a “bathroom” in the basement (don’t even get me started), and the outside spigot exits the house on that same wall. From the outside, it comes through the wall and into the “bathroom”, then runs through the side of a vanity (very handy), and disappears into the bathroom wall. It exits the wall in the ceiling, and runs over to the main line that is fed by the city water.

By the way, that comment I made on Facebook recently about not knowing how water gets into my house? LOL jk, I was lying.

As I followed the pipe around my basement today, I discovered that there is no valve between the main line and the outside spigot. It’s a straight shot from city water to my garden hose, other than the leaking spigot.

What does this mean? I can’t shut off the leaking spigot without shutting off water to the entire house, because the ignorant jackass who had the house before me wanted to save $1.17 by not buying a valve and installing it somewhere in the “bathroom”.

If I ever find this stupid loser, I’m going to throttle him with my bare hands until he stops twitching.

I dragged my wrenches outside, and tried to tighten the spigot. It was so decrapitated that it broke off as I gently wrenched it. I think it’s tight enough, but I know I’m on borrowed time. If it’s bad enough to degrade like that, it’s only a matter of time before it just falls apart. Guess what I’m doing this weekend?

So, when Blackie asks me why I’m so AR about making sure it’s done perfectly, instead of just fixing it good enough, stories like this run through my mind (and I got a hundred of ‘em). At least once a month, we find something that just had a band-aid slapped over it-just enough to cover it up-that needs to be completely ripped out and replaced. I curse his name all weekend, and swear that I’m not going to pass this crap on to the next guy.

I don’t want to do to the next homeowner what the previous homeowner did to me.

THAT’S why we fix it right, instead of fix it good enough.

p.s. Leave a comment and tell me one of YOUR home maintenance horror stories! You can leave comments by clicking on the {comment} link below this post.