Scope Creep

[BarryBobPosthole]

No, not Scope Creek, that was a project I worked on in the Air Force.

Scope creep. Here's how it works.

About a year ago, maybe longer but don't ask my wife how long, I went to replace a leaky Delta faucet cartridge in our master bathroom shower. The cartridge was stuck so I grabbed a pair of channel locks and put some brown bean torque on it. And promptly twisted the whole shooting match and broke one of the copper pipes that are part of the cartridge housing. Then I had to bust out a hole in the tile on the wall to install cut off valves in the hot and cold water feeds. That way I could turn the water back on in the house until I could fix it. My wife took one look at it and immediately expanded my job with one short sentence. "I never liked that damned tile to begin with." See how she did that? Said the only thing possible that simultaneously let me off the hook AND stab me in the top of the head with an even bigger one.
Fast forward a long time. I restarted this project a few weeks ago. (We have been using another shower, we are bathroom poor in this damned house). Now its grown to.....tiling one entire wall of the master bathroom instead of just the shower. Installing all new shower guts and trim. We picked that out today. No. SHE picked that out today. Installing a new frameless shower enclosure. Installing new valves, drains, and spouts on both vanity sinks. Installing new valves drains and spouts on the bathtub/spa. Installing new drawer pulls and toilet paper holders. Its gotta all match you know. She was looking at new light bars and sconces when I dragged her home today.

And all because I put just a little bit too much torque on those channel locks.

Scope creep.

Its real.

BKB

[Captain]

Damn. That's tough duty.

[Buckrub]

To paraphrase two good friends, I'd be all over the Yellow Pages on that deal. WAY over my hourly wage rate.

[No-till Boss]

Teflon tape might have save you.

[Thumper]

Ha ha NTB, that's the first thought that came to my mind. I never do any plumbing without it. That said, I would have to assume this was the original faucet as P-hole's house really isn't all that old. Maybe the original plumber failed to use it, but I find that doubtful as it was probably assembled at the factory and simply installed as one piece. If it makes you feel any better P-hole, I have the persact same problem here. Our downstairs toilet started leaking and I needed to replace the wax ring. With my back problem and not being able to get down, bend over or lift anything significant, it was a major chore to replace (I can't STAND paying someone to do what I can do myself). Well, once I got into the job, I realized the metal ring that's fastened to the floor (plumbing) that actually secures the toilet to the floor, had corroded and was totally fubar. (nothing to hook in to) I went ahead and replaced the ring, bolted the toilet down on one side only, then hoped for the best. It didn't work. From that point forward, we've just been using the upstairs toilet and I kept figuring my back would improve, then I'd tackle the more difficult job of replacing that thing (not even sure what all I need to do, but it does NOT look like it'll be fun). That was at least a year ago, so I really do need to start thinking about it. I just hope I don't have to bust up any tile to get to it ... because, like you ... we BOTH hate the tile that's in that bathroom! I really, REALLY don't want to go down that road! Good luck with your project. Isn't retirement great? You lose a lot of "excuses" once retired! ;)