Daughter and son-in-law staying at our place in Houston called to say that yet again the kitchen drain had backed up. This is a 1950's bungalow, and the plumbing in the kitchen is still the original. The old bathroom and the new bathroom both have new plumbing - well, 95% of the old bathroom drain is new or refurbished. We still have about 50% of the supply lines to be redone, as well.
We have asked them to get an estimate on the drain. So far, the estimate has ranged from $13,200 to $6,500. We have one more estimate to go. Of course the lower-priced plumber said that the guy who does official estimates was off, and that they should come back with a camera for a fee to look in the pipes. I guess that means that the lower estimate is the estimated estimate.
I told the SIL that we would not pay anything for an estimate. The $13,200 estimator had a boroscope and also cleared the clog while he was there, both for free. Of course, if I was looking at $7K in profit, I'd probably do a 'scope for free, too.
This is going to make Christmas not so cheerful. We had known the plumbing was going to need to be replaced as we had already done two of three areas, but we had hoped to put it off another year or two. There's still the supply to do, too, when this is done. Luckily, I can do the supply myself. I won't mess with drains, though. Too much can go wrong with drains; supply lines either do or don't leak when you're done.
My wife wants me to sell the bungalow. It is in my name from before we got married. I want to keep it as we can get about $1300 to $1500 per month if we rent it to other than her daughter. So, the time has come for us to make a decision. Do we sell it and use the equity to buy another house or do we keep it and use the rent to help pay off another house? The wife believes the former. I believe the latter.
Plumbing Problems
October 21st, 2012 at 03:34 am
October 21st, 2012 at 02:34 pm 1350826452
November 16th, 2012 at 02:55 pm 1353077733
November 18th, 2012 at 02:00 am 1353204041
We're just north of the Heights. We're looking in the Heights and in our present neighborhood for our return place. Places in our neighborhood rent like wildfire. We were told by a realtor that we could get up to $1700, thus my more realistic estimate of no more than $1500. I'd rather have more say in choosing the renters. Our current neighbor, as well as our previous neighbor have both said they'd be willing to rent our place instead of the one next door.