I know a guy

 A good portion of what I'd like to talk about is what to do when you have  to make a home repair yourself. Yep, YouTube is good for basics and even some advanced stuff. But what if the person that installed/fixed the item you're working on presently was a moron?  The house I live in now was "flipped" during that big surge of said activity in the early 2000's by what I can only assume to be a credentialed aardvark. Pipes are mixed and matched from SCH40, 80, Pi. The wiring is technically functional, the electrical fixtures are put together only in the strictest definition of the word. And I think most of the paint is kindergarten tempera. For the last 5 years, I've been encountering my predecessor's handiworks. Today I came across a vanity light in the master bath that had simply fallen apart. The sockets for the bulbs are attached to the sconce with hollow, double sided thread. These pieces were screwed it by maybe 1/8 inch. While dusting the fixture, I g...