On Thursday morning, June 13th, I went down to the basement to do a set of curls with my barbell. I immediately noticed water on the floor. I turned on the faucet in the kitchen sink and water dripped down from the kitchen into our exercise room. I stopped the water and got on Nextdoor to look for recommendations for a good plumber that was reasonably priced. I called one and he came out and gave me a quote that shocked me. Still in shock I went ahead and scheduled the work for his next available day, which wasn't until Monday. The next morning my property manager instincts kicked in the next morning (that's what I did for 25 years) and I decided to get another estimate. Among the other names on Nextdoor was Tony Swoboda.
I called Tony and talked to him about my problem. He said he could come out that evening to look at it. He came over in the evening and said he could take care of it, and his estimate was half of the first one. Now in fairness to the first guy, it included repairing the drywall after the repair, but still, it seemed high to me. Besides, I can deal with the drywall repair myself.
I told Tony that until the leak was fixed we couldn't use our kitchen sink or the dishwasher. He surprised me by saying he could possibly come out on Sunday. I said, Great. He called me Saturday night to confirm he was coming at 10 AM on Sunday.
Let's recap: I have a plumber who is not only willing to come out and not charge me extra to do a repair on Sunday, but on Father's Day to boot!
Tony was here this morning and after cutting access points under the sink and behind the dish washer, he located the leak. An old lead pipe had an opening that was over an inch long. Tony cut that piece out and then went to Home Depot to get a piece of PVC pipe to fix my problem.
During the time he was working under my sink I learned that Tony had been a police officer for 15 years, and that he lives on a 3 acre mini-farm in Maryland Heights. His family has owned that land since the 1940's.
When he first came in I asked him, Do dogs bother you? He said, No, I'm a dog person. I have 4 of my own. My two dogs ran out to the porch to greet him. Once Tony was inside he got down on his hands and knees to get acquainted with Tango and Jack, and even let Tango give him a few kisses on his face. I've always said, You can tell a lot about a person if they like dogs.
Tony Swoboda worked on Sunday, Father's Day because he knew we were in a jam. While our kitchen sink and dishwasher were out of commission we had to wash our dishes in small basins in our bathroom sink (see picture).
We were so happy to have the use of our kitchen restored today.
I have worked with a lot of contractors over the years. I highly recommend Tony to anyone who needs plumbing work done. He is honest, reliable, very reasonably priced, and he loves dogs! If you call him, tell him Stu told you about him. I told him I'd be writing a nice review on his behalf. He's one of the good guys.
