Better to play a plumber than pay a plumber

The shower in our master bathroom is showing every bit of its age these days, and we have talked often about how we would replace it and what with, if given the opportunity. But ever since the endless kitchen renovation, Glenn’s enthusiasm for home improvement projects has been severely limited — as in, nonexistent. So naturally when the shower faucet began leaking and didn’t seem to be getting better on its own, we did all we could to ignore the problem. When that no longer worked, Glenn made some rudimentary repairs by tightening screws in the wall that seemed to do the trick for a few months.

But ultimately a part that is destined to fail eventually will, and so it was this month with the shower shutoff valve. There came the morning that no matter which way we turned the knob, no matter how much pressure we applied, the drip from the stem in the handle would not stop. Normally this would just be a nuisance; you can put up with a drip for a time if you don’t mind sleeping with the Chinese water torture at night. But what made this problem different is that the water insisted on running back down the inside of the acrylic handle and into the wall.

We’d gotten used to having to remove the handle so the water couldn’t pool inside it and drip down the shutoff stem, but now the leak was so bad that the water was a steady trickle, so even though it wasn’t going into the wall it was still making a waterfall-like racket on the fiberglass shower pan.

The answer to this problem should have been remarkably simple: pull out the old shower stem and replace it with a brand new cartridge. Thirty bucks and an hour or so should get the job done. But because we never get to do things the simple way, here’s what actually went down…

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A

BOUT A YEAR ago, we tried Plan A and got the replacement part at Home Depot. It comes with a little plastic tool that locks into the old cartridge and enables you to hook up a wrench to the plastic and twist the cartridge out to clear the way for the new one. Except that plastic versus 30 years of hard water deposits is no match, and the cartridge wouldn’t budge. We went back to the store and bought a metal wrench, similar to the plastic piece, that should have been stronger. It wasn’t. All that happened is we bent the wrench and ruined it — cartridge still stuck fast, leak still present.

But somehow, after Glenn replaced the handle and the screws in the faceplate to tighten the valve apparatus against the back of the shower stall, the leak went away for a time. That is, until this past week. Now there was no quick fix, so we decided that come hell or high (higher?) water, we were determined to pull the old cartridge regardless of the consequences.

So on Sunday, March 28, Glenn grabbed his pliers and fought with the cartridge in an attempt to loosen it up. It resisted mightily, but at last it gave way, and out popped the stem, marred but free. And the copper cartridge housing remained in the brass valve, stuck fast. So now we were fully committed to the repair because there was no way to put the old cartridge back together, and the new one couldn’t be inserted with the old one in the way.

So it was over to ACE Hardware in Oakley to look for a nipple extractor tool, something that could be inserted into the pipe and used to dislodge the cartridge. We came home with a stepped basin wrench that proved totally useless. More internet research and then back to ACE. This time we found a half-inch pipe nipple extractor with a long handle that (theoretically) was exactly what we needed. We brought it home, inserted it into the valve, and were disappointed to find that half an inch wide was still too big to engage the narrow cartridge.

It was getting late in the afternoon by this point, so Glenn drove off to Home Depot while Roni came up with a dinner recipe that didn’t require water, since we had shut off the main line to the house. Glenn returned about an hour later with an assortment of wrenches and ratchets that might do the trick and get the stubborn cartridge out of the wall. He tried a three-eighths-inch wrench that was indeed thin enough to insert deep into the cartridge, but its teeth wouldn’t engage properly and it just slipped out when Glenn tried to use it. Then he attempted a package of various sized gripper tools that work on the same principle as the cartridge wrench. Unfortunately, these came without long handles, and the ratchet extension needed to attach to them proved too wide for the cartridge opening. Worse still, he stripped the adapter on his socket wrench, rendering the tool useless.

By now it was late in the day and we had exhausted our tools and ourselves. The broken cartridge remained in the valve and we couldn’t turn on the water to the house because there is no separate shutoff handle for the shower. Glenn, who is not one to admit defeat easily, did the unthinkable and told Roni we’d have to call in a plumber if we didn’t want to go days without water.

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I

T DIDN'T TAKE long the next morning to find a plumber in Antioch who was available to do the job. At least a pro would have the right tools and experience to get the cartridge out quickly, even if it did mean having to pay him a few hundred bucks. It has been a few years since we hired anyone to do plumbing work, and we’d heard some ballpark estimates on related jobs, so we generously assumed somewhere around $500 to pull the old cartridge and put the new one in.

Our jaws nearly hit the floor when we were told it would be $700 to replace the valve, and that was without a guarantee that he could actually get the old cartridge out. Oh yes, he had a “special tool” that could do the job, but he wasn’t positive it would work, as the last time he’d tried to use it it got stuck in the valve. So more likely was that he would have to remove the existing valve housing and sweat solder in a new one, which would entail opening up the wall behind the shower to get the old piece out, then installing a new valve complete with new handle, trim and shower head. In short, nothing that we couldn’t do ourselves for much cheaper.

So Glenn thanked them (perhaps in not so many words) and sent them packing, clearly disappointed they had made the trip to our place for nothing. Then it was off to Home Depot again so we could buy the parts we should have bought all along — a Moen shower replacement kit complete with new valve. There were some other parts we needed too — plumber’s putty, pipe thread tape, Shark Bite connectors, pipe cutter — and in the end we were out around $200 on top of the hundred or so we’d spent on other tools we’d needed earlier. Still less than half the plumber’s quote.

Glenn managed to get the old valve cut out without too much trouble, although he did manage to lose the pipe cutter tool inside the wall, never to be seen again, when it slipped from his hand. Fortunately he had an old tool he was able to find in the muddled mess that is our garage, and that got him through the remaining work. He managed not to have to destroy too much more of the drywall in the closet, so the hole can easily be patched or hidden. Following the instructions that came with the kit, he was able to get the new valve installed in under three hours. It looks great and no more leaks…

OK, so that’s not entirely true. There were some minor leaks after the installation, mainly because pipes weren’t screwed in tight enough at the valve behind the wall. Glenn managed to tighten the fittings a bit to solve the problem with the hot water intake, but still has yet to conquer the remaining one feeding the shower head. At least it now only leaks when the shower is on, and we’re talking less than a thimbleful of water for an average length shower.

But despite the imperfections, we’re excited to have a 99-percent working shower and to have saved the cost of the plumber. (Stop laughing, Norm Abram!)

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M

ONEY SAVED IS mostly an illusion in this day and age; there is always something or someone with a hand out for the cash in your pocket or your bank account, and as much as we are thrilled to have received our federal stimulus checks along with the rest of the country, the proceeds are well spoken for.

Last month we wrote that we had begun the process of transforming our home as we sought ways to avoid the intrusions of our noisy neighborhood. In addition to modernizing accommodations in the spare bedroom that serves as our Writing Sanctuary/office/den/library, we started investigating what it would take to replace the old windows and doors in our home with newer, sound and energy efficient models. 

The answer, not surprisingly, is money. A good window can run upwards of $1,000 with installation, while doors can easily range north of that. Because we are fairly new to this game of hiring contractors to update or repair portions of our home that are in need, we probably underestimate the real-world cost of things in our pandemic-driven marketplace. We conservatively estimated that the two doors and three windows we want to have installed would run about $10,000.

With that figure in mind, we headed out to Lowe’s and talked to one of the representatives in their window department. We’d already been to Home Depot and gotten a quote on a French door with sidelights that we liked, thinking we would order two to replace the clunky patio slider doors in our dining room and master bedroom. Double panes are standard features, but because of our noise issues from neighbors and trains, we had started looking at triple-paned glass for a bit of premium and even learned about the benefits of laminate glass as a way to really reduce sound. But we had nothing to go on except our internet research, and now it was time to talk turkey with a pro, someone who knew the ins and outs of the window and door installation business.

So we set up an appointment with Justin. Or rather, Justin had an appointment set up for him with us for a Friday afternoon, March 19. It wasn’t that we wanted to talk with Justin in our home at 5 p.m., but that was the earliest appointment on his calendar, and if we were going to order doors and windows through Lowe’s then we would have to work with him, seeing as how he was their all-knowing expert on such matters and could guarantee us the discount on the Pella windows we were now considering.

Being that we are in the midst of a pandemic and haven’t had much contact with anyone at our home other than the three of us, the idea of bringing a total stranger over to talk business felt odd. Ben wasn’t happy with the idea that someone he didn’t invite would have access to his bedroom to measure his window, of all things. And Roni was very concerned that the mess we’d accumulated in the living room from all the displaced furniture and books from our makeover of the den would be unsightly, not to mention in the way if Justin needed to reach our doors or living room window for a measurement. It was almost as if Justin were coming to live with us, not just sell us windows.

And so we embarked on a cleaning spree, banishing boxes to the garage and clearing objects off the front porch and back patio around the windows and doors. Justin had no clue the chaos he was creating, and the arrival of royalty could not have elicited a more thorough response from the advance team.

But in the end, the joke proved to be on us. The afternoon of the 19th found us waiting patiently for Justin’s arrival, and when 5 o’clock came and went without a knock on the door, we eventually put in a call to Lowe’s to find out what was up. What was up turned out to be that Justin was on vacation, and so that appointment scheduled on his behalf should never have been entered on the books. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be this time; we still hadn’t researched enough and were still on the fence as to whether to go through with an expensive door and window overhaul.

But given some comments we’ve seen from others we read concerning their window replacement efforts and our experience with the plumber, we anticipate that our estimate of the cost of our new windows and doors is probably absurdly low, even if we do go through Lowe’s. We’ve rescheduled our visit from Justin to 
April 6, and hopefully by then we’ll all be ready for each other.

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UR WORLD HAS been in shutdown mode for most of the past year, thanks to COVID-19, but this month has suddenly seen a reawakening as vaccines are coming online and there is hope that the pandemic will soon fade from our collective conscience. The challenge facing most of us now is how to get one of those vaccines.

Our health insurer, Kaiser Permanente, has continuously assured us that vaccines are on the way, any day we’ll be notified that we are eligible to receive one as supplies become available, blah, blah, blah… The problem is that Ben has been eligible for weeks, being an “essential worker” in the grocery business, and he still hadn’t been able to get vaccinated as appointments were always booked by the time he got around to checking online. So we didn’t have much hope that we older folks would get in anytime soon.

Fortunately, Kaiser isn’t the only game in town. Our county has been encouraging residents to set up appointments outside their primary care providers to take advantage of the growing vaccine supplies, and so it was that Roni was able to book a date for the two of us to get vaccinated at the Nick Rodriguez Community Center in Antioch on March 26.

If that date seems at all familiar, then you either know us personally or have been reading this newsletter for far too long — that is our wedding day, and this year marked 33 years since we tied the knot. It’s not like we had any other big plans for our anniversary, so might as well take advantage of the opportunity to get those vaccinations out of the way. Well, at least the first round.

So we showed up at the community center a few minutes before our scheduled 1 p.m. appointment to be herded through like cattle, poked in the arm, and sent to sit it out in the observation area for 15 minutes while we determined whether we were excited to be vaccinated or perhaps felt too ill to walk straight. Maybe it was a bit of both. The Pfizer vaccines we received left us feeling more sore than anything, and Glenn reported feeling numbness in his left arm while Roni felt lightheaded and queasy for a bit. Now that it’s been almost a week since then, we’ve noticed no other ill effects. That’s good, because we will have to go back for our second round of shots on April 21.

Ben, meanwhile, still had no luck getting his appointment and was quite envious that we had gotten ours first. He is lucky to have Roni as a mom, because she was diligent about tracking down a time for him. Eventually he also got his first dose, on March 30, receiving the Moderna vaccine. He gets to go back for a follow up shot on April 28 and joked that it is the “28 Days Later” vaccination. Let’s hope none of us turns into zombies by then.

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IKE HOUSE REPAIRS, medical appointments have largely been put off during the pandemic. Who wants to spend time in a hospital hanging around people who might have or transmit to you the COVID-19 virus? That goes as well for dental visits, and if the thought of being near potential sources of infection is off putting, then the idea of someone sticking his or her hands in one’s mouth is even less appealing. But sometimes you have no choice.

Glenn had been ignoring a painful molar since late December, hoping to ride out the waning weeks of the pandemic sans vaccines. But when an abscess started brewing he knew he couldn’t put things off any longer and made the inevitable call to Western Dental. Curiously, routine x-rays showed nothing, and it was only after he pointed out the infection in his jaw that the dentist noticed it at all. A referral to an endodontist followed, as did weeks of back-and-forth between different dental offices and the insurance company.

At last, on March 25, Glenn got his appointment with the endodontist at Brentwood Smiles Dentistry, and later that afternoon, lighter in the wallet to the tune of $595, he left with a quadruple root canal in his number-three molar and a future date with his general dentist to replace an old crown. The good news is that it was at least a tooth that already had issues. The bad news is that there was probably nothing he could have done to have prevented the infection, given that it never showed up on the x-ray and the dentist saw nothing otherwise to indicate there was a problem. Moral to the story: keep your teeth healthy as long as you can.

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E'VE DONE A pretty good job finding ways to spend money this month, so it’s cheering to know that occasionally we find ways to bring some in too. Roni picked up a new gig as magazine editor for the California Water Environment Association (CWEA), the professional organization for workers in the water and wastewater industries. “Clean Water” magazine is published five times a year and is designed and produced by an outside firm. Roni’s role will be to plan and coordinate content with correspondents and do some light editing as well as write articles of her own. It’s a one-year commitment initially, with an option to extend the contract a couple of years if everyone is happy with the way things are working out.

At least now Roni knows she will put that new office space we created in the den to good use as a place to conduct conference calls and do her work in relative peace when things get noisy outdoors.

Meanwhile, our investing adventures got quite interesting during March as the markets became more volatile and traders continued shedding tech stocks like rotten flesh on bone. Our most reliable portfolio anchor of the past year, Apple (AAPL), has lately been a daily laggard that led our taxable account steadily lower. Glenn has been heavily involved in options trades this year, and had an open put position on AAPL at 139.00 that got exercised before market open on March 4, a day the stock was trading around 122.00. The result was that we briefly owned 100 more shares of overpriced Apple stock and our cash account was $13,900 lighter.

This was more a nuisance than a disaster, and the remedy was simply to sell off the newly acquired shares at the market price and re-option the position into May. The net result was a positive cash flow of approximately $450. AAPL shares have been stuck in neutral since then, so there is a good possibility the new option will have to be rolled again by its May 21 expiration date. But that’s the nature of the beast with options.

The slump in tech stocks was actually good news for selling put options, and we sold a bunch of them in March as well as several calls, bringing in more than $6,100 in premiums — our best month since last April — across all our accounts. That was on roughly 20 new trades that were either opened or rolled.

We made just four stock transactions aside from the Apple misstep: acquired 50 shares of QYLD and sold 20 shares of Super League Gaming (SLGG) on March 4, sold 100 shares of AMC on March 19, and bought 60 shares of Cloudera (CLDR) on March 24.

Those latter two trades were semi-related. AMC, one of the so-called “meme stocks” popularized by the WallStreetBets group on Reddit, has rocketed higher since November, when we optioned it at 7.00. The shares were trading at 14.00 on March 19 and we were unable to roll the position before it was exercised, so we lost the shares but gained $700. With those proceeds, we purchased CLDR the following week when its price dipped to 11.65. Cloudera is one of several cloud computing companies that should continue to grow as more businesses shift their operations and data storage needs to the cloud in the coming decade. The long term question is whether it’s better to own stock in a fledgling tech company with scant revenues or a near-bankrupt theater chain. For that answer, check back in about five years.

Phew, it’s been a busy month! Maybe it’s a sign of better things to come as we move into spring. We’ll see you again in April.

 

Glenn, Roni and Ben