Today was a record breaking day. I got out of a building supply store having spent less than ten dollars (record number one – it’s usually hundreds for even a small project). I completed a plumbing repair after only one trip to the store (record number two – it usually takes three trips). And I finished the repair in less than a minute. Record number three.
Admittedly, the job – replacing a worn out flush lever on a toilet – was a simple one.
After I finished, I thought about some of the people I know who have lived with things not working in their homes for weeks, sometimes months. This is not because of a lack of intelligence or energy on their part. Without exception, they are smart people who lead responsible lives.
The difficulty they have is a lack of experience and/or lack of tools. There have been numerous small jobs around my house that were relatively easy but would have been impossible or extremely difficult had I not had the correct tools and some level of experience in using them.
Some time back our water stopped working. We were on a well at the time and had a pump and storage tank in the crawl space under the house. The plumber we called crawled under the house to the unit, diagnosed the problem, crawled back out, drove to the nearest supply house, took the new piece under the house and installed it in just a few minutes, and our water was restored. He charged us over a hundred dollars (it would probably be three times that now) for five minutes work. And the expertise to diagnose the problem. And the knowledge of what was needed to fix it. And the skill to perform the task. In a very real sense, we were paying for the years of training and experience that made it possible for him to take care of our problem quickly and easily.
There are a number of jobs I can do around our house that can be done better and faster by a pro. As I age, the saving money aspect becomes less of a priority and the better and faster part becomes more important. I’m watching a two man crew replacing the boards on our back deck and thinking, “I could probably do that job. It would take much longer, I’d have to buy a lot of new tools, a trailer to haul away the old boards, it wouldn’t be as good a job, and I’d very likely do some serious damage to my back.”
I’m looking forward to what the deck is going to look like in a couple of weeks, and I’m very glad I knew a pro who could do the job.