Oh Culligan man!

the new one

Marc and I are just about to admit we live in an aging home.
It seemed new when we bought it. But then again,
 that was 25 years ago.
We realized it anew when we started having some plumbing problems.
Our water heater started flooding the floor of the utility room and so we called in a plumber to replace it.
On his way out, he said something about an expansion tank.
Meant nothing to me.
We called in a new guy when we started having kitchen faucet issues.
The new plumber went about looking at our pipes. He found a few problems: copper tubing that was out of code, no expansion tank (apparently you need one of these), no pressure regulator valve on the outside lines.
He was very nice and very young and seemed capable. He said our house is old.
He suggested a new faucet after part of it came off in his hand.That meant giving up my pretty little copper faucet that matched my outlet covers and shelving in the bathroom.

like what we had

He sat down and added up the cost, discounting it a little when he saw my reaction.
I was flabbergasted.
Where I had expected to pay about $200-$300 for work on my kitchen sink, I was now looking at $1500-$2500.
I called Marc.
I called my son who is in construction.
I negotiated and suffered.
Finally, we settled for the tank, the hosing, the valve and a new boxy faucet that works but I don't like.
I paid the guy and four hours later I had working pipes.
The problem is, now we had half the pressure that we had before. The plumber returned and decided the first guy put in a bad PRV valve. Another three hours gone.
We still don't have the water pressure we had before all of this but I'm a little afraid to complain.