This is the story of my morning.
This morning I got up as usual, got my shower and was about ready to walk out the door when I heard Stacy say "I have no hot water". I thought to myself, "hmmm, I didn't take that long of a shower, did I?". In fact I had not. I went outside to check out the situation and saw water spraying from the bottom of our hot water heater. Crap!
My task: Assess the problem and stop the water flow.
The ground was soaked, but warm. It is obvious that the pressure change during my shower caused it to burst and that I was lucky enough to have been finishing my shower before it became cold.
We have an ancient enclosure around our water heater. Not to mention the heater itself was sold in 1983. Yeah, it's time for a new but hopefully not today. I worked loose some screws in the ancient crypt of an enclosure and found the source of the water. I couldn't stop it. What to do next? Turn off the valve right? It was rusted shut and all the tools I could find wouldn't budge the damned thing. All of my large pliers were missing, so I headed to Walmart. At this point it was 6:35, which is usually my deadline for making it to work on time. I would not be on time today.
Walmart is only one mile away, so it was a quick trip. I grabbed what I needed, bolted home and turned the valve. No water stopped. Surely that was because the tank was emptying..... Nope. It never stopped. The valve did nothing, so I cut off the water to the entire house, called a plumber, and proceeded to removed the crypt covering. It took my for ever! Not to mention I got my work clothes all muddy. But in the end I got the enclosure removed and threw it aside.
I went inside and attempted to wash off the mud. No go. Remember, I cut the water off. This would be the first of about fifteen times that I reached to turn on the water, yet none flowed. I managed to get semi clean, changed into fresh clothes, and headed to work. The Plumber was supposed to give me a 30 minute heads up. Of course I was about 1 mile from my house when he called. That would have been quite fortuitous had he actually been on the way. Unfortunately his message that he would arrive in about 30 minutes was full of false hope. About an hour and 15 minutes later I get a call from their dispatcher that they are running behind but it will be another 30 minutes. I tell him that is fine. An hour later; same call, same apology, same delay.
The repairman doesn't arrive until after 10:00. He walks around back, sees the dilapidated crypt remains and the 1983 heater and immediately launches into a sales pitch for a new tankless heater that he can install...only about 3 grand. WTF!!! I said, "so you cant fix this one". He says, "oh, I can fix it". Then he looks in his book and finds a page that quotes $475 and says "oh, that cant be right". I'm about to laugh at this point. He then finds the correct page. Quote is $94. That is more my speed. I tell him that if you can do it for $94, then do it. It takes him a long time, but then he finishes. I pay and ask him to help me put the crypt cover back on. He does and it almost falls apart. I then take the next 45 minutes screwing them damned thing back down. I'm once again covered in mud....work clothes covered in mud. Since it's already past lunch time, I decide I've had enough crap to deal with today, so I decide before finishing that I will call it day. The morning and early afternoon totally sucked, but that decision to call it day was the best decision ever. It turned out to be a very productive day around the house...and I even got to take a hot shower when it was done.
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