Little Victories

[Ryan Canfield]

Saturday I spent the whole day at a buddies house who is also a landlord.  We spent the bulk of the day doing some gutter work on his rental property.  At 3:30pm I received a text message from one of my tenants saying the kitchen sink was leaking.  I texted the tenant and said I would take a look around 5:30pm.  Once I arrived and took a look, it was noticeable that there was water leaking underneath the sink from the sink strainer.  I go to home depot and buy some plumber's putty, and 2 different sink strainers thinking that one of them is going to work.  After trying both of them it's clear that neither was going to work.

I go back to home depot and return the 2 incorrect strainers.  This time I made the smart decision to bring the old strainer with me so I could match it up to all of the models and get the right one this time.  I get back to the apartment after making 2 trips to home depot within 45 minutes (4th trip of the day to home depot after going twice earlier with my buddy) and get back to work.  It's about 6:45pm now and I'm supposed to meet a few other couples for dinner at 8pm.  I get to work again, the strainer now fits better but I need to cut about a 1/4" off of the pvc drainage pipe.  I didn't have a hack saw so I ended up using a circular saw to cut the pipe.  I got back inside, pvc pipe fitting nicely now, I put in the plumber's putty and tightened up all of the nuts on the strainer and voila!  The kitchen sink no longer leaks!  I went home, got cleaned up and made it to dinner on time.  My tenant was also extremely happy that I fixed her leak right away.

I had never changed a sink strainer before yesterday.  All in all, it was not hard at all.  It just took a few trips to home depot and $17 dollars worth of parts.  It's a great feeling being able to fix something for someone shortly after they ask and it makes you feel good at doing something yourself.  It's the little victories in land lording that make this game so much fun!

[Vic French]

I'd like to add that guys should always attempt to teach their wives or significant others how to change out toilet parts, faucet fixtures, and sink piping.  I've saved $$$ over the years by learning how to do the grunt work myself; it's quite a rewarding feeling. I do leave the electrical to a professional unless of course it's an easy fix.