Some things snowball in a 50-year-old house.
The spigot on my backyard cracked over the winter and it needed to be replaced. My son came up from Los Lunas. After lunch at a pizza joint, he went to replace it. We bought a replacement, and he couldn't get it to thread onto the nipple. It was rusted and corroded. He tried all he could, but it wouldn't go on.
With the water turned off I was looking at having to find a plumber. Good luck on a Sunday and most likely not getting one to look at it for a day or two. I was on my way to find a motel room for the night when I saw Glenn with his garage door open.
Glen has been my handyman for a number of years. When I was using the fireplace I bought firewood from him, he reroofed my house, installed my new front door and screen door, put in a gate at the side of the house and other small jobs over the years.
His health has gone down and the last time I tried to call him his phone was disconnected.
His mother passed away in December, she lived a few doors down from us and he's living there now. He would like to keep the house but will mostly likely have to sell it. Found out he was living in Farmington.
Anyway, I asked if he would replace the nipple on the backyard water spigot. He spent four hours trying to get it off. Nothing worked.
We got a motel room. He went to a plumbing place and got advice. He called and said he bought some penetrating oil and a packet of inserts that he could put inside the nipple and with a ratchet would get it out.
He came by around noon on Monday and did everything he could, but all the inserts did was spin on the inside. I was looking at another night or more in a motel and finally trying to get a plumber.
To Glenn's credit, I paid him Sunday 50 dollars for his time, and he refused for me to refund him for what he bought and any extra money. He called a plumber friend, and he came over within an hour.
The socket that the nipple went into was so corroded it wasn't going to let go of the nipple. He had to cut a hole on the outside wall to reach where the socket joined with the copper water pipe. He cut the copper pipe, took out the socket and nipple, cut a piece of copper pipe and soldered it onto the rest of the pipe. Added a new socket and nipple and put on the correct spigot. Took less than thirty minutes.
He wanted a hundred dollars, I only had ninety on me. He took the wrong spigot I'd bought for the difference. Who knew there was a right and wrong spigot, thought all I needed was one that was a half-inch.
Glenn's going to patch the hole around the spigot and he's checking on replacing a big wooden gate in the backyard (access for the box the electric company has in the corner there). It's pulling out of the cinder block wall and I'm replacing it with chain link. I was going to have him do that before he went out of town.
Next time I'm calling a plumber.
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