This. I was raised exactly like the kids in that quote. My biological father once called AAA because he had a flat tire. In his garage. When I was learning to drive I realized my step-father knew how to do wood working, my ADD curiosity kicked in, head got big and we built a wooden sea kayak together (and his boat building hobby took off; dude has been featured in a bunch of wooden boat magazines lately actually). He didn't teach me much else, too busy I guess. But I got the bug from that satisfaction of looking at something and knowing you put it together or built it yourself. Can't buy that feeling from a store. I got my first house shortly after my brain surgery when PTSD had me scared of my shadow. The idea of calling someone for help gave me anxiety just thinking about it and I was too much of a penny pincher to pay someone to do it anyway. Made about the only smart decision I'd make during that time and decided to investment in tools instead, taught myself everything, this was pre-YouTube so there weren't any online tutorials. Broke some stuff in the process, but learned even more when I fixed my mistakes. My favorite hammer is still the first one I ever bought. Now I have a basic welder, every plumbing tool I'll need, know enough carpentry to do some furniture and love refurbishing and repurposing stuff. I try not to fuck with electricity because I enjoy living, but I have enough tools to get the basics of electrical work done and know enough to know when to call in someone with a life insurance policy. The house we're in now is several decades old and the ability to fix, replace, and renovate shit myself is not only cost-effective but makes me proud... Wish I had more knowledge about the basics of large-scale construction work. When we have another kid and add onto the house, I'd like to build it myself. And rock/brick our back patio to screen it in. Hopefully I'll avoid raising my son like the current generation when it comes to mechanics and that nebulous "some shit a guy must know" category. I'm working on it.
Depends on how high up the light is. Might not have the ladders and crap to get to it, or just hate heights like me. Calling an electrician because a breaker flipped? (Side note: I once did this to my brother's room as a joke thinking for sure he'd know what was up. He was staying at my parents' place, and they did call an electrician because they couldn't find the problem with all the lights being off.)
This is my biggest stumbling block; I'm kind of afraid to fuck stuff up and learn from my mistakes like everyone does. The other issue is that the projects I'd like to do on my house are tedious and un-fun; I'd like to replace all the cheap and ugly looking wainscoting in my bedroom with drywall, but ugh, putting up drywall is such a chore. Putting up the drywall itself is fine, but I hate doing the mudding. That and I'd also have to take all the furniture out of my bedroom including my bed, which will be an enormous pain in the ass, and I'm just dealing with what I've got.
Yeah, I felt for him... he's young (21?), and very sheltered and geeky/programmery. His sink was backing up and he thought he needed his pipes snaked when all it was was some shit in the p-trap. To give the guy some props, he did feel totally embarrassed after paying the $180 for the plumber. Hard lesson to learn, for sure.
I worked there through part of University and it was pretty decent at the time. Bernie and Arthur still owned it at that time and it was a pretty good part time job. Paid above minimum wage with a raise usually every year. Original owners sold, big corporation mentality came in and place changed overnight. Bought some of these for the house from snappower.com. Can't wait for them to come in.
When I worked at HD nobody made minimum wage. It was at least a dollar an hour more, I worked in a "specialty department" (flooring, plumbing, electrical, millwork) which paid higher. Still, at Costco you're making a living wage with real benifits and you don't have to freak people out with your plastic friendliness.
A teacher just asked if we could call the plumber because the cold water wasn't working on her sink just the hot water. Yup, someone had turned off the valve for some reason. I tried not to make fun of her but because she used to be my son's teacher and I knew what I could get away with, I failed. Too many jokes. She will never live this one down.
A girl I worked with couldn't tell me if she had a gas or electric water heater when I pressed her for details when she complained about hot water issues. Like....biatch, did you even open the closet and LOOK at the damned thing?Jesus tap dancin' Christ.
Hopefully, if it's electric, the anode rod has failed, which has caused the upper element to fail, which means she's got like half capacity and horrible efficiency, so the bottom pan is rusting out and she'll figure it out when water starts leaking everywhere. That'll teach her. Also, every time water heaters come up, I'll throw in a plug: if you have an electric water heater that needs replacing, DEFINITELY replace it with Rheem's Marathon water heater. You're welcome.
If it totally leaks and rusts out, it'll just land on the ground since they are up in a trailer. Keepin' it classy, y'all.
Sooo many people have no idea that hot water tanks have sacrificial anodes that need to be replaced periodically... at least until their hot water goes brown for a short period of time, which is the precursor to the bottom rusting out and major flooding. http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Longevity/water-heater-anodes.html
Here is your WTF story for today. Mummified sea captain found after a year adrift in his boat. "Such had been the dry, salty conditions since the unexplained death of the German sailor that his corpse had been mummified in its final position, slumped over a table used for charts with the transmitter handset just inches away." With pictures! So if you don't want to see the things horror movies are made of, don't lick on the link.
Fuuuuuuuckkk. I love mummified stuff. When I was 5 my parents took me to this Ramses The Great exhibit and I got to see his mummy. It kinda freaked me out, but I couldn't look away. I thought the mummy was the best part, even better than riding a camel. I LOVE it.
You're supposed to change those things? Seriously though, when I first moved out on my own I had no idea how to do pretty much anything when it came to home repairs. Even the most basic stuff. Thankfully one of my really good friends is an HVAC and maintenance manager and is used to dealing with people with absolutely no mechanical knowledge. Throughout the years he's been a mentor of sorts always willing to help me out with stuff around the house to the point that I'm actually fairly competent in just about any kind of home maintenence stuff except for electrical. When it comes to that I know just enough to get myself killed and not enough to stop it from happening.