If It Ain’t Broke, Pick a Weekend and Fix It Anyway

I noticed a water puddle sneaking from under the washing machine last week.  Expecting a problem with the machine itself, I pulled it out from the wall and discovered the leak in the hot water supply hose.  I tightened it, stopping the leak…and maybe should’ve walked away.

 

Instead, I noticed the hose connections at the wall were getting corroded.  Shaking loose a household tip from the corners of my mind I remembered washing machine water hoses should be changed every five years…or maybe it was three…or maybe it was seven.  Whatever it was, the hoses were living on borrowed time so the next day I picked up a set.  

That evening I went to put them on but got sidetracked by chores or fatherly duties or…playing pool and drinking beer, I don’t exactly recall.  The next night the same thing happened, except I was reading the bible or writing poetry or…watching a game on the tube and drinking beer, I don’t exactly recall.  And so it went for several evenings, through a weekend and into another work week, until last night.  The hoses had seasoned well on the kitchen island and were ripe for installation, out the toolbox came and into the laundry room I went.

The cold water connection came off easily; the hot water connection did not.  I finally got enough weight behind the wrench to coax a quarter turn.  Grunting, I continued rotating the connection until it came off…along with half the faucet. 

 

Since, even in the off position both faucets continued to leak, a 60 mile roundtrip to the nearest afterhours hardware store might be needed…but, ignoring the obvious I attempted to liberate the odd part from the corroded hose with a hacksaw, pliers and a lot of ‘adult’ words so I could reunite it with the faucet.  No luck, so to the store I went.

The clerk was baffled by its bizarre arrangement of my unique faucet and, being an odd design, he didn’t have the part to fix it.  We explored plumbing fixtures eventually coming up with a three piece, somewhat extended replacement for the single piece that had welded itself to the old hot water hose.

  

Returning home I attempted to install the compound adapter and, though it was the exact size of the unfaithful part, it wouldn’t fit.  I tried numerous angles, inspired insults and finally prayer…nothing worked.  I ate a cold supper and went back to try again.  The thread started.  It made half a turn.  I backed it out and tried again…repeatedly.  

Eventually I gritted my teeth and got the fitting firmly into a distressingly shallow bed.  I turned the water supply on…it held…and leaked.  I was able to do a load of sweaty gym clothes for the kids and then shut the hot water back off and head to bed.

This morning I turned the hot water back on, allowed everyone interested to get a shower and turned it back off.  Unfortunately, I had to cut into the wall and spend more money on parts.  Fortunately, my boss let me off for the afternoon to get it done while local stores are open.  And with that, 24 hours later my washing machine hoses are replaced.

Here’s some wisdom the past couple days have brought.  Always start a project, even a small one, on Saturday morning.  An odd ‘manly’ feeling accompanies all repairs, but especially those that become a battle.   And if it ain’t broke, pick a weekend and fix it anyway.