Do -it - Yourself!

We have had several repairs needed around our place lately.  On the way home from Florida, the cover on the back driver's side tail light decided to just fall off.  

It was very strange!  We are just driving down the road and my husband looked in the side view mirror and saw it hanging and then it was gone.

We were traveling rather fast up I-75 or I-65,  I can't remember which, but it was too fast to stop and go back for a light cover that was probably smashed by now.

And then there was the toilet,  if you are at all closely familiar with the lovely inside of your family's "Throne" as it is lovingly known in these parts, you will know that the handle is attached to a do-hickey and that is attached to a thing-a-ma-bobber and that is then attached to a chain and a flipper-flapper.

Well our do-hickey broke right off the thing-a ma-bobber and the flipper-flapper went flop!

Well, back to the van - when we got home we got home we called the car dealership and we were told that they had to replace the whole tail light and the part was $200!!!!!! OUCH!

We have never done any of our own do-it-yourself car repair before,  but we decided it was time to take some things into our own hands - literally!  So, my hubby got the phone book and started calling parts companies and salvage yards.

We also went out to the van and tried to disassemble the light ourselves - we got it almost apart, but couldn't get the actual assembly off the car - so we called a friend for help, but he was unable to get it off either.

We were able to find a junk yard that you could scour around and if you found the part it would be $16 - a savings of $184.  Unfortunately, they did not have what we needed, but we did finally get the part at a salvage yard, already off it's previous ride for $54 - a savings of $146.

My hubby's next step was to go to Pep-Boys, they were willing to install the light for only $25, since we couldn't figure out how to get the old one off.  We knew we were missing something simple, but try as we might we couldn't get it off!

When he went to Pep-Boys, then mechanic was very nice and popped the old one off with a pick (we were trying a flat head screw driver).  He had it back together in a few minutes and didn't even charge my husband anything!

Well, now that we were safe from being pulled over for a broken light it was on to the toilet.  I was able to get a repair kit for Meijer for less than $3.00.  It was quick and easy to remove the old parts and replace it with the new ones.

I did have to bend the new do-hickey a bit to get it to fit our toilet - so I'm glad I bought the metal one instead of the plastic kind.  This was my first toilet repair, but it gave me the confidence to try a bit more in the way of DIY repairs.

Does anyone have a manual on fixing microwave ovens?