Best ‘mistake’ purchase I think I’ve made for this house is a large pair of channel lock pliers. I mean… very large. Heeee-uge.
I needed something to get the 4″ nut off the bottom of the toilet tank. There are not many things that can get a grip on a 4″ nut. I basically ended up with the largest set of pliers that Home Depot had to offer. And it kind of pissed me off, because I couldn’t foresee actually needing them again, and they were a bit expensive.
In fact, I was tempted to return them after I was done with that first job. The packaging hadn’t even been disturbed. But I kept holding onto them, and holding onto them, and …
And then, when I needed a strong grip where I could exert a lot of force on a rusted rod, out came the pliers. And when a friend couldn’t remove their oil cap on their car, out came the pliers. And then…