DIY Holly

My husband and I have separate sinks in our bathroom. His sink had a leak from the right handle. It had been leaking for quite some time, but I was pretty good at ignoring it. Brian suggested that I call a plumber to fix the leak. I procrastinated. One afternoon, after I had cleaned our bathroom, I looked over at his sink leaking and I snapped. No more! I could not stand the little puddle of sitting water for one more second! DIY Holly was in the house.

How hard could fixing a leak be? Like I have done in the past, I got on YouTube. A million leaky sink videos popped up, showing me step by step what to do. I watched several videos, then narrowed it down to two very helpful and information-packed tutorials.

I was going to fix the leak.

The first step was to turn off the water under the sink. No problem.

Well, actually, it was a big problem. My valve looked old and rusty, and nothing like the sleek, shiny valves in any of the how-to videos. Determined, I turned the valve off...but the water stayed on. I turned it harder. It was still on! What the? I grabbed a wrench and turned that thing as hard as I could. The valve broke off. None of this was covered in step one! The water was almost off, however, so I kept going.

All of a sudden, I felt water spraying from under the sink all over my legs. It was not a small spray. Gah! I quickly put towels down and tried to tighten anything and everything. I panicked in the chaos and called a friend who happens to be a general contractor.

No luck there, as he was out of town. He gave me a couple of numbers to call, but no one answered. My afternoon project had taken too long, and it was now after 6pm. No one was answering the phone. I surveyed the situation, feeling hopeless. Water was everywhere, and it wasn't slowing down.

I tried one more time. I got down on my knees to tighten anything I could under the sink. YES! The spraying stopped. The water still wasn't completely off, but I decided to plow ahead and fix that handle.

Guess what? You cannot fix a leaky faucet or handle while the water is on. Deep down, I knew this fact, but I told myself a little water pressure wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the water still bubbling up would even be helpful? I got the new parts in the handle and turned the water back on.

The handle exploded.

Ok, so it didn't actually explode...but it did shoot straight upward with incredible force. I watched in awe as Brian's sink handle became Old Faithful. So much water shot up to the ceiling and then fell, blanketing his entire side of the bathroom. It was incredible.

DIY Holly left the building. I turned the water mostly off again, and called an emergency plumber. He arrived in 30 minutes, and fixed everything in about an hour. I paid him an exorbitant amount of money and he left.

I was so embarrassed. I had fixed things before, and they usually ended better than this. My problem happened at step one. Step one. I should have stopped the whole thing when I couldn't get the water off. Instead, I forged sloppily ahead to step 13, and it cost me greatly.

We all have step one mistakes. We rationalize them away, believing a small thing won't be a big deal. Don't fall for that like I did. Step one problems are so much easier to correct! Take the time and just do it. You won't want to, but it is worth it, I promise. You can keep moving on, and you may get away with it for a time...but eventually, Old Faithful erupts in your bathroom in Texas.

Leave Old Faithful in Yellowstone, where it belongs.

this is as "off" as the water would go

this is the old valve that broke off when I tried to turn off the water

this is me, embarrassed