'This Old Crack House' #34: Call 911 my ego had been mortally wounded…Plumbing 101 for dummies...

I was overwhelmed and things felt pretty hopeless at that point. Although making some small progress, my friend, David, wasn’t doing well. He was still in a coma.

I had only one choice. Because I couldn’t afford to hire a plumber, I had to do it myself.

The city plumbing inspector, who red tagged and failed my rough-in inspection, offered to help me. He said he couldn’t design the job for me but could and would help me with what I had to do. That also included showing me what would meet code and how to achieve this.

I accepted his offer.

I took my bruised ego and a note-pad up to city hall, where I sat down and drew out the layout of the new plumbing. To avoid getting too far off base, we then scheduled progress inspections.

He was a god-send.

He explained where I went wrong. Although my intentions were good, following the old plumbing layout was my mistake. The original plumbing was done to an outdated code. Many improvements and code changes had taken place since it was originally installed. When you do a remodeling job, one of the building code requirements, is to bring things up to the current code.

It makes sense, but it still stings and it costs a lot of money. Money I didn’t have. I was already mortgaged to the hilt and in order to carry me over until the house was sold or rented, I had taken out a line-of-credit.

One thing that I learned is that, in the mean time, all the interest accrues. I still had to make monthly interest payments.

Ouch! That hurt!

I worked on the house every spare moment I could. Not only did I have a first and second mortgage payment to make, I also had other commitments.

Time was money; literally. I had very little of either to waste. I had to make every day and dollar count.

Doing all the work myself, was the only way I could do this. It was not only important that I did it in a timely manner, but that I did it right the first time. There was no room for my ego to get in the way. I had to ask questions concerning how things were done, and I had to be sure I got good sound advice. When in doubt, ask more questions.

Unfortunately, when you think you know everything, this wasn’t always easy to do.

My ego was in a critical condition. However my wallet was on its death bed. So attending to the needs of my wallet won out.

I called for an inspection on the basement floor rough-in. Everything passed with flying colors. I was so relieved. I was on cloud nine. Some of that bounce had returned to my step.

But, oh how quickly that can leave you.

I was about to learn the lesson that even the best laid plans and intentions can go afoul.

Sure enough, one of these surprises was right around the corner.

Will they ever stop?

Copy write all rights reserved D.Jerzak 04-16-07

-- Dusty