Shopping Around

So the moral of the story is. Shop around!

And the story is...

We had a problem with the plumbing under our sink. It had been leaking for awhile slowly, and I kept meaning to call someone. But then one day Ann's doing some dishes and it just falls off. What you say? The pipe! The pipe between the disposal and the wall was just lying there...being unattached!

So I look at our Home Warranty and I see plumbing is covered! Fantastic! Call em up! It was late so there was no person, just an automated system. Or I could go online and use that automated system. Well no where in either automated system is there an option for detached pipe. They had "Garbage Disposal","Leak","Stoppage",etc. But no "Pipe fell off". So I chose garbage disposal, but I decided this had nothing to do with the garbage disposal. So I opened up a new ticket for "leakage". A stretch, but it was definitely leaking!

The assigned company calls me that night and we set up an appointment for later that week. That experience is recorded elsewhere. But what happened after he came in is not. I told the person on the phone the actual deal with the piping. He seemed okay with it. But the guy who came later actually seemed surprised. He then looks at it and decides that it was not installed properly. Which...he was quite accurate. I don't know for sure, but I feel inclined to blame our house's previous owner. He did a pretty shoddy job all over the place, so...it's right up his alley to have installed plumbing poorly. Apparently he didn't use glue and didn't install it draining down. Instead it slanted up, which explained why we kept getting sink backwash in our dishwasher. Anyway, the warranty doesn't cover poorly installed equipment, so I had to pay $60 for the call, and had no work done. He gave me an estimate of $295 to re-pipe it correctly, but I was not to impressed with the company's whole operation. The plumber was not rude, but not friendly, and the company was a bit short with me, which...you know...that's fine, it's just surprising when I could potentially be a paying customer. I guess they didn't need anymore of those. So if only for this fact, I decided to shop around (and the fact that the guy just left while I was talking with the home warranty people).

We had a plumber come out when we re-did our bathroom which our contractor hooked us up with. So we eventually get a hold of them and they say they can probably do the work for $100. And he comes out, and he did not disappoint. I was afraid he didn't fully grasp the situation. But he re-piped it, fixed the leak, gave us more room under our sink, and hopefully fixed the dishwasher backwash.

I don't know why the reduced price was so astonishing to me. I'm not surprised at some variation, but I am surprised at the 3 factor difference.

well...that's all I got.

The Odds

So I've been waiting on a plumber to show up all morning. They called around 8:15 and said they'd be here in half an hour. Over an hour later, I'm still waiting. Initially the plan was to finish up some special feature on a netflix dvd we have out so we can return it and get a new one. But when I got the call so early, by the time I got around to actually waiting, I thought he'd show up any minute, and I had other things I could read/do. So I waited. A few minutes ago Ann calls and asked if I'd watched it. I said no because I was expecting him to show up any minute. She said I should still try. I knew as soon as I got up to put it in they would show up. So I was hesitant. But I got up anyway. The world doesn't work like that. Some cosmic force isn't waiting for me to get up so the plumber can drive up.

When I came back from putting the DVD in the player his van had pulled up.

Though...I've had time to write this blog from sitting down until I now see him opening his door. So we are not moving at lightning speed today.

New Lens

Well I've heard from several sources that my first lens purchase should be this 50mm Canon lens.

The best--and most affordable--regular use lens I ever purchased is a 50mm prime lens. (The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens)

from MckMama (Don't judge me! I was reading some of her photography "lessons"!)

And

I would recommend getting a nice 50mm lens as one of your first additional lens purchase. You can get a really fast (1.8 or 2.0) for under $100, and if you want to get really high quality glass you can get a 1.4 for around $350. A 50 is a great lens to have, so I always suggest that as a first purchase

from a conversation with my old roommate about photography, as...he is one, and I'm not. I had asked about lenses, but not specifically the 50mm prime.

So...I decided to take the advice of those in the know, and I ordered the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. I found it for just under $100, but I'm sure it's out there for a few bucks cheaper. We were just wanting to take advantage of Amazon's free shipping by joining some items. Most of the reviews agreed that you get what you pay for (few lens are going to be <$100) with build quality and auto-focus, but as far as value for the money, it's one of the best "deals" out there. I had considered the faster 1.4 50mm, but...it's 3 times the cost, and I'm hoping to get some sort of zoom lens in the future. So saving $200 to put towards it is helpful. And I wont know how much more I'll want the extra speed until I experience 1.8. So while I thought my first lens purchase would be an anxiety filled journey of indecision (and this one did have some moments of indecision), this was probably as easy a decision as it will ever be (unless I find more $100 lens or unbelievable deals, which...I never find).

The only person to recommend AGAINST the prime 50mm was my brother in law who suggests the 35mm. And I see his point. 50mm with the T1i's outrageous crop factor of 1.6, means I'll be shooting on a virtual 80mm lens (I think that's how it works), which may mean that I'll have trouble getting far enough away to frame the shot. But...again...$100. Hard not to give it a trial run. And I couldn't find any similarly priced 35mm.

So that should be here next week. I'm sure I will not lack in "comparison" pictures, so I suppose they will make their way here.