The Joys of Home Ownership.

Whenever you hear this phrase, you can be assured that it is said sarcastically. The only time that owning a house is a joy is when you sell it and make a nice profit. Things go wrong all the time. I have found that if nothing has gone wrong or broken in a few months, something will shortly. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I weren't so cheap. I would just pay someone to come fix it right away. But no, I have to do research to save myself anything I can. It seems like I can't even get a hold of neighbors when I need help. Show me a man who takes on responsibility and he will own a house. Boo to anyone who lives at home until he gets married so that daddy and mommy can take care of everything for him. I dated a guy in his late twenties who was still living at home. He didn't even do his own car insurance. He's not going to know what hits him when all of a sudden he has to take of things by himself. Oh wait, he'll probably just call his dad and ask him to come over. I can't imagine him living outside of the same city.

Having a house, far away from any family, has certainly taught me some valuable lessons in independence and responsibility. Having roommates doesn't help either. You can't expect them to live as uncivilized as you would be willing to.

The recent saga that initiated this subject began when my roommate called me at work Friday morning to ask if I noticed anything wrong with the water pressure. Apparently it was non-existent. I had showered at the gym so I didn't know there was anything wrong. Then I remembered that the toilet did take an extra long time to fill up. My research began. First I called the city public works just to make sure that it wasn't a city wide thing. They didn't know of anything. I explained my problem to the receptionist and she said that it could be one of at least two things. One, the freeze plate could have broken, which is something the city would have come to take care of, which I was desperately hope was the case. Or, two, it was the pressure reducing valve. The receptionist said that she would send someone out to check the freeze plate. Well, we had had so much snow the day before that all the city workers were assigned to snow plows.

Finally after not hearing from anyone in six hours, I called her back. Another receptionist answered and took my number and said that she pass on the my information. A few minutes later a guy from the city called to get some more information about the problem. I explained the problem, and he said that it was the pressure reducing valve and that I would need to get a plumber. The first receptionist that I talked to said that she had to have her PRV replaced and that her husband did it himself without any problems. That gave me hope that it really wasn't that hard to fix. I had planned to go to Provo to visit my sister and brother and friends, but with the news, I decided I had just better go home.

When I got home, I realized that there was still significant water. I tried faucets everywhere and still got water. The biggest difference was in her bathroom. I knew that it needed to be fixed, but with as much running water as there was, I didn't worry as much as I had earlier in the day. I called Home Depot. They say, "You can do it, we can help," so I talked to a plumber there. I explained the problem and the part I needed and he said that if I brought the old one in that they could match it. Well, I didn't want to take the old one off without having a replacement, just in case I couldn't get it back on or something. So, I went in to look at what they had. The parts looked similar enough. While I was there, I bought a pipe wrench because the one I had wasn't big enough and had hoped to be able to take it in in the morning. (They were almost closed) By that time, there was nothing more I could do, so I decided I would just put it out of my mind by watching a movie.

My ward was doing a 40 day fast for missionary work, and I had signed up for that Saturday (trying to be smart and kill two birds with one stone by carrying it over to Sunday). I wanted to get it done as soon as possible before I started the fast because I wasn't thrilled about taking care of everything on an empty stomach. So, I went to Home Depot, again, first thing in the morning with more information. I still hadn't taken the old one off but not due to my reasoning above. I couldn't get the dang thing off! Evan (code name), my roommate's boyfriend even helped. Together we couldn't even get it off. But I did take a picture of it. (Aren't digital cameras so handy!) I found one employee who got another, and the three of us discussed the problem. And lo and behold, they didn't carry the part. Dang. Being Saturday, plumbers weren't working (or if they came they would charge extra). I couldn't do anything else, and I wasn't going to pay extra for a plumber. I figured that there was enough water, so I just left it. I thought Monday I could call plumbers and get an idea of what it would cost. And there I left it.