Saturday, September 8, 2012

I Told You So!

I thought I'd tell you a little story that I'm sure many, many of you can relate to. A few months back, I noticed the faucet on our kitchen sink seemed to be leaking, so I told Hubby he needed to replace it. (Yeah, we do the traditional role stuff around here, which means that for the most part, he's supposed to fix things and I'm supposed to complain about them.) At first he couldn't see that it was leaking because it was just a little trickle out of the base of the faucet that ran down into the sink. Then, once he acknowledged the leak, he wanted to wait until Soccer Son could help him replace the faucet. (After all, why hire someone when you can do it yourself, right? And since Hubby's the son of a man who raised six kids on a plumber's salary, fixing a leaking faucet himself is probably a point of pride.)

Time passed and Soccer Son never found time to help replace the faucet and the trickle continued unabated. (Hubby's disabled with muscular dystrophy and doing the job himself is beyond him, yet he never wants my help.) One day about a month ago, Hubby called me at work to ask if I'd noticed water on the kitchen floor before I left for work. No, I hadn't, but shortly after I left, it appears we had a major leak because when Hubby came out to the kitchen, there was water everywhere.

Of course THEN he had to fix the faucet, right?

Nope. Because by this time, he started thinking that if we were going to get a new faucet, maybe we needed to replace the kitchen sink too. And all of that would take some shopping around and comparing prices. In the meantime, a bit of tightening and a bucket under the sink to catch the drips would do just fine.

When I came home from vacation with my friends, I had a new kitchen sink, but the new faucet wasn't working quite right. Hubby had a handyman lined up to come in a few days later to do some repairs, and figuring out what was wrong with the faucet was one of the things on the list.

One evening, when I came home from work, Hubby rather proudly showed me the new faucet was fixed and was working just fine now. Hurray! However, my nose detected an odd and unpleasant odor, so I opened the cupboard and looked under the sink. Here's what I saw:


"Honey, why is there a hole in the bottom of our cabinet?," I asked. Hubby explained that when the handyman got down under the sink, his hand just went though the bottom of the cabinet--it was quite obviously rotted out from all the moisture over the last several months of waiting to fix the faucet.

Tomorrow the handyman's coming back to fix the floor of the cabinet.

In every marriage there comes a time when a husband or wife is just dying to tell the other spouse, "I told you so." Actually, I think it's more accurate to say that time comes along about as often as city buses. But then you think better of it and don't say anything. You just blog about it. By the way, don't tell Hubby I told you, okay?

9 comments:

JoAnne said...

All I'm thinking about here is that wasn't it Ben Franklin who said, "A stitch in time saves nine?" But after hearing this, and of course, with my own 25 years of experience of living with a man, I'm really thinking that it was his wife who coined that phrase. (Wouldn't that explain the sewing reference?) And he took all the credit.

Me and My Stitches said...

So hard to keep that "I told you so" inside, but so nice that we all have each other to vent to! Glad it's all getting fixed now!

Donna said...

"Vision" is unique to the sexes. Women see water leaks. Men see the slow leak in the car tire. How interesting!

Josie McRazie said...

I feel your pain! I told my Husband three months ago my brakes needed done... this past week they were fixed, of course by now I also needed new rotors as well as pads! I sucked it up as he paid ubber amount for it! Grumble grumble!

Miss Jean said...

Ah, typical married life! I feel your pain - been there, done that!!ernulfor 46

Pat said...

Sam always tells me.."Honey, when I say I'll fix something, I will! I don't know why you think it's neccessary to nag me about it every six months!" : )

Unknown said...

Haha! Okay. Your secret’s safe with me. :P Well, it goes to show that it pays to repair any house problem as soon as you discovered it, so as not to make it any worse. Anyway, it’s sweet that your husband took the initiative to fix the problem, though you’re right about still asking a handyman to look it over. Haha! By the way, one good habit to keep is to do a scheduled check-up of your house, even for just once a month, to detect and prevent problems from worsening.

Lance Witts

Mallory Dates said...

I'm sorry if your newly installed faucet wasn't working quite right. I hope the "handyman" you're pertaining to is a professional plumber. You're actually right, Kim. It's okay for one to fix his faucet all by him/herself as long as he/she knows how to do so, but if not, it's essential to call a professional plumber right away.

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