Item: our plumbing sprung a leak.

Item: over the phone, I got a ballpark figure out of the plumbing company, five to seven hundred bucks.

Item: when the guy presented his quotes, they totaled just over two thousand dollars. What could we do? We okayed it.

Item: when the guy finished, he’d found that one of his line items was not enough to clear the sewer-line blockage.

Net result: two thousand dollars poorer, no working toilet or shower upstairs, and a new quote in hand for about seven thousand dollars, work which will entail a backhoe, a jackhammer, giant trenches in the lawn, and a torn-up expanse of concrete.

BONUS: I have diarrhea this evening and now must attempt to trot up and down the stairs with my own personal plumbing valves held firmly in the off position, no mean feat.

I am a less-than-satisfied homeowner tonight.