I should have been a plumber

I could have also called this, good thing we have an emergency fund.

Yesterday, while cleaning up for a get together tonight my husband broke out kitchen faucet. Or maybe I should say the faucet broke while in his hands. It's a model where a single lever goes up down for on/off and left or right for hot or cold. There was a pop, no water when pulling the lever up, then the lever came off in his hands.

He visited our second home, a big box home imporvement store, and came home with a mission. They didn't sell the parts, but a local plumming supply place does. "It's a pretty easy fix if you get tool X they told him."

So this morning he heads to the plumbing store, where again they say "Yeah, it's pretty easy to do." At this point I should mention that my guy is not handy. He can make the computers work, and when I need help (usually in the form of strength) on a project he's there. But not someone you could call handy. The fact that he even volunteered to try and fix it amazed me.

Fast forward 2 hours. I get a call at work letting me know despite turning off the water, water is flying everywhere and he is now bleeding. I take a minute and call a plumber.

I called a national service that we have all seen plumbers for and told them to head over, largely because the lack of a call fee (btw plumbers, why do I have to pay $35-70 for you to just show up???). The guy gets there, gives us quotes, and (after the husband calls) we both fall on the floor. I give a quick call to 4 competitors from the phone book, asking how much it would be to get the problem fixed, using plumber language. Their quotes were all within $20-30 of the quote from the guy standing in our kitchen so we decided to just go for it.

Depending on where in the cycle our credit card bill is and what his comission check looks like 3 weeks from now we may be able to swing it. If not, we have money put aside for time like these.

This is our first house related emergency so far so I'm not going to complain too much. I'm also going to use this as impetus to get off my behind and do something I've been planning to do since we moved in- develop a contractor list. I'd much rather contact someone based on personal reccomendations than call a national service. Come July it's at the top of the list.