We had to replace our kitchen faucet and I didn't feel like climbing under the sink, turning off the water and removing the old faucet, installing the new one, etc., so I figure we call a plumber. We're "members" of the local plumbing, heating & cooling company (pay a small monthly for discounts on service and purchases, plus free annual check-ups on furnace, AC, etc.) so I figured yeah it'll be a couple hundred bucks probably, but I'd still rather pay that than do all that myself. I'm getting too old for this shit.
Seven hundred fucking dollars. To install a new kitchen faucet that only cost $250 in the first place. Also, the guy shared with me that the faucet itself, you know, is a rather low-end piece of hardware. Low end? Yeah, plastic innards, chrome-plated plastic, not really meant to last more than five or 10 years. Well, shit. We are planning on selling the house in maybe the next five or ten years, so I guess it doesn't have to last any longer than that, but now I know. I mean, there were the $200 faucets at Home Depot and fancier ones and fancier ones that went all the way up to like $1000. Now I know why. Solid metal fittings and all that.
So that was annoying, paying three times as much as I'd paid in the first place to have a POS faucet installed. But it's done. The kicker is, I don't even like the new faucet. The sprayer is weird and has a bizarre spray pattern, but we couldn't exactly try it out at the store first. I just assumed it would be like any normal sprayer. But after spending nearly a grand buying and installing it, we're sticking with it until we sell the house. The benefits of home ownership.