My parents have an expression, the "ten minute job".

This is where Mom wants Dad to do some thing or
other, typically a repair such as fix a drippy faucet.
She will describe it as a ten minute job. Dad knows
the threads are rotted, and the pipes will break, and
end up being two days and a plumber house call.

I was thinking that today. As I replaced faucet
washer in the bath tub faucets. Go turn off the
water, the knob handles don't have screws, I left
them out, the handles just press on. Still, they were
rotted, and took a lot of prying. The brass screws
in the center of the valve stem were rotted.

Strangely, I did haved the tools and supplies (00 flat
washers) and some plumbers grease. No trip to the
store for parts, which is really unusual for a ten minute
job.

I'm both feeling accomplished, and nervous. The next
job will not go as well.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 10/9/2012 1:36 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
My parents have an expression, the "ten minute job".

This is where Mom wants Dad to do some thing or
other, typically a repair such as fix a drippy faucet.
She will describe it as a ten minute job. Dad knows
the threads are rotted, and the pipes will break, and
end up being two days and a plumber house call.

I was thinking that today. As I replaced faucet
washer in the bath tub faucets. Go turn off the
water, the knob handles don't have screws, I left
them out, the handles just press on. Still, they were
rotted, and took a lot of prying. The brass screws
in the center of the valve stem were rotted.

Strangely, I did haved the tools and supplies (00 flat
washers) and some plumbers grease. No trip to the
store for parts, which is really unusual for a ten minute
job.

I'm both feeling accomplished, and nervous. The next
job will not go as well.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



Plumber here a few weeks ago to replace a laundry tub fixture.
Might have tried it myself but it was soldered in.

While here I had him replace a Moen cartridge in my shower as well as
the shower head as I knew he would have these type problems.

Last year I had pulled the cartridge from the tub at risk of breaking
something. These were original at about 35 years. Also every time I've
replaced a shower head, it's sheared off leaving threads behind.

Plumber had both these problems in my shower but had a puller for the
cartridge and a trick to removing threads. He used my parts so extra
costs since he was here were minimum and this septuagenarian had peace
of mind.

On Tue, 9 Oct 2012 13:36:08 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

My parents have an expression, the "ten minute job".

This is where Mom wants Dad to do some thing or
other, typically a repair such as fix a drippy faucet.
She will describe it as a ten minute job. Dad knows
the threads are rotted, and the pipes will break, and
end up being two days and a plumber house call.


My father in law kept his house in pristine mechanical condition.
After he passed, there was no one around to do that sort of work. When
we'd visit my MIL, it was usually on the weekends and I'd see a faucet
drip. I had to just leave it alone. The shut offs below the sinks
could not be trusted. I knew that the ten minute job could take a
couple of days and I may even have to have the city turn the water off
at the street. The main valve had not been touched in many years.

Thankfully, mom came to live with us for her last few years and she
sold the house "as is" to the next door neighbor.

Ten minute jobs are what I hate about doing repairs at my sister's house.

She lives about 7 city miles away from me, so it's not just a matter of doing the work. It's a matter of anticipating everything that could go wrong and bringing along everything I might need in case something does go wrong.

Often it takes longer to take everything out of my car and put it back in it's place when I get back than to do the repair.