So it’s like this. It’s Sunday night. I’m winding down, sitting at my computer, just kickin’ it for a while when I begin to hear… water.
As a homeowner, you will learn to dread and fear this sound. Unless your house is currently in flames, nothing good comes from the sound of unexpected water. You can only hope that the water is coming from an accessible place which can be isolated from the rest of your plumbing system, and pray it doesn’t involve the sewer line.
So I listen some more. I think: No, it’s not the aquarium… I’m not doing laundry and neither is Ted… he’s in his office….Did he start the dishwasher? huh. Better check it out. I follow the sound to the kitchen, fling open the cabinet doors, and am met with a spray of water shooting out from under the sink. ACK! Where’s it coming from? ACK! Make it stop make it stop make it stop “TED!!! TURN OFF THE WATER!!!” … where is it coming from? Sh*t, I can’t see anything…“TED!!!” ugh…bucket-yeah BUCKET get a BUCKET to catch the WATER “TURN OFF THE MAIN!” ok got a bucket ok … ARRGHH it’s spraying everywhere, this isn’t working, sh*t….
And the water stops.
 Fig. 1 Shutoff valve |
An interesting thing happens to your brain when you’re met with an unexpected displacement of water in your home for the first time. You see, the smart thing to do when met with a face full of water, as I was, would be to first try the shutoff valve. For example, the one that’s right in front of me and clearly visible now that the water has stopped spraying me in the face (see Fig. 1). Ted reminds me of this when he returns to the kitchen after having turned off the main outside. Smart ass. |
We turn off the shutoff valve (the water was cold, thank goodness), turn the water main back on, and start removing and drying the now soggy contents of the cabinet. After mopping up the remaining water, we begin to assess the situation. Ted’s under the sink looking at the the pipes, and I whip out my copy of Time Life Books Complete Fix-It-Yourself Manual (god I love this book). Between the two of us, we determine that the likely cause is a leaky supply line, which seems to have corroded near the basin coupling nut.
I think, “Great! That sounds pretty easy to fix.”
Ted thinks, “All plumbing is evil! We’ll call a plumber tomorrow.”
We go back and forth and he’s still resistant, so I finally say that I’d like to try fixing it before calling a plumber, and if he could just be around to turn off the 
water main again if things go badly, that’d be great. At which point his testosterone begins to kick in, and he supposes we could try it, and hey, are we getting a new tool?
One trip to Home Depot and about 25 minutes later and we have a new basin wrench, a newly installed supply line, and the satisfaction of having done it ourselves. Although I didn’t think it would be that hard to fix, even I didn’t expect everything to go so flawlessly. Yay us!
