Busted water heaters and lake houses
"Mommy, the shower isn't hot," Ben yelled down to me on Tuesday night.
Knowing it takes forever for the shower to heat up, due to the distance from the hot water tank to the shower, I yelled back, "give it a minute."
"I did..."
And that is how we discovered that the hot water wasn't hot.
So, I went down to the basement to investigate. Steve was in the air, so I had to do it on my own. I had NO idea what the hell I was even looking at.
I went back up to our office and went straight to YouTube. This is when I realized that I didn't even know if the damn thing was electric or gas. Due to the absence of a black power cord, I figured it was gas.
Shit. I hate gas. I have this fear that things will explode with gas. But, I had to figure this out. And so I did. Upon inspection I figured out that the pilot light was out.
This nice man on YouTube told me how to relight a pilot light. And so I traced back downstairs for the third time and tried to relight it.
I did post on my personal facebook page that I was attempting to light it, and if my house were to explode then people would have known the story. Again, Steve was in the air, so I felt I needed to put a trace out there into the universe, because I was convinced that I was going to explode the house.
I followed the nice man's instructions and started to process. But, when I turned the dial from "pilot light" to "on" the flame went out.
The nice man warned me of this and told me it may take a couple tries. So, I tried a couple times.
Nope. Nothing. Flame went out the second I tried to switch the dial to "on."
In the meantime, Facebook was going to work. I had a friend, who is a neighbor, send over her husband and another neighbor over. They tried a couple more things, and ultimately threw in the towel. The water heater was 22 years old, and well past her prime. It was time to get a new one.
And so we did...it was installed a day later.
It's amazing how easy it is to take hot water for granted.
Meanwhile, Steve wasn't impacted at all by our lack of hot water. Of course he wasn't. Doesn't it always happen that way? He came home to a lovely new hot water heater at the end of a very long 4-day trip.
**
Sorry for my absence of blogging. Just haven't been feeling it lately. When I have a great thing to write about, I can write fast and long. But, when there isn't much to write about, it's a challenge. Lots of time wasted just staring at a screen, thinking about what to write.
Life has been pretty status-quo lately.
Actually, I guess I do have something to write about...it just came to me...a lake house.
I want one. I want little cottage on a lake. With a deck, where I can drink coffee in the mornings, and cocktails at night. I want it right on the water, that overlooks calm water. With a boat, and jet skis, that we can toy around with. I have this dream. I want this. I actually don't ask for much.
Steve and I have looked at places here and there. The last one, a fixer upper, we looked at was in January. We looked at a number of places last summer. One of these places is still on the market, and we have talked about it somewhat. But, overall Steve has lost interest.
This makes me sad.
When push comes to shove, he doesn't want another home. "This is home," he keeps telling me. And, yes, our home is our home. It is a beautiful, comfortable, warm, happy place....that Steve only spends 4 nights a week in. He doesn't want to spend even more time away from it.
"But a lake house would be your home..."
He doesn't buy it.
Call this an occupational hazard. Sometimes I sucks having to deal with these hazards.
Don't worry, I'm still working on him. My latest is that we rent out the property, as a vacation rental. I'm doing my homework, and will present everything to Steve in an organized manner. Steve is VERY slow to warm on ideas (hell, it took probably 2 years to convince him on the kitchen remodel). So, there is a slim hope.
At the very least, I'm just broadening my knowledge of the vacation rental market.
***
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Family is coming into town, and Saturday night we have an awesome fundraising event to attend. It'll be a blast!
Knowing it takes forever for the shower to heat up, due to the distance from the hot water tank to the shower, I yelled back, "give it a minute."
"I did..."
And that is how we discovered that the hot water wasn't hot.
So, I went down to the basement to investigate. Steve was in the air, so I had to do it on my own. I had NO idea what the hell I was even looking at.
I went back up to our office and went straight to YouTube. This is when I realized that I didn't even know if the damn thing was electric or gas. Due to the absence of a black power cord, I figured it was gas.
Shit. I hate gas. I have this fear that things will explode with gas. But, I had to figure this out. And so I did. Upon inspection I figured out that the pilot light was out.
This nice man on YouTube told me how to relight a pilot light. And so I traced back downstairs for the third time and tried to relight it.
I did post on my personal facebook page that I was attempting to light it, and if my house were to explode then people would have known the story. Again, Steve was in the air, so I felt I needed to put a trace out there into the universe, because I was convinced that I was going to explode the house.
I followed the nice man's instructions and started to process. But, when I turned the dial from "pilot light" to "on" the flame went out.
The nice man warned me of this and told me it may take a couple tries. So, I tried a couple times.
Nope. Nothing. Flame went out the second I tried to switch the dial to "on."
In the meantime, Facebook was going to work. I had a friend, who is a neighbor, send over her husband and another neighbor over. They tried a couple more things, and ultimately threw in the towel. The water heater was 22 years old, and well past her prime. It was time to get a new one.
And so we did...it was installed a day later.
It's amazing how easy it is to take hot water for granted.
Meanwhile, Steve wasn't impacted at all by our lack of hot water. Of course he wasn't. Doesn't it always happen that way? He came home to a lovely new hot water heater at the end of a very long 4-day trip.
**
Sorry for my absence of blogging. Just haven't been feeling it lately. When I have a great thing to write about, I can write fast and long. But, when there isn't much to write about, it's a challenge. Lots of time wasted just staring at a screen, thinking about what to write.
Life has been pretty status-quo lately.
Actually, I guess I do have something to write about...it just came to me...a lake house.
I want one. I want little cottage on a lake. With a deck, where I can drink coffee in the mornings, and cocktails at night. I want it right on the water, that overlooks calm water. With a boat, and jet skis, that we can toy around with. I have this dream. I want this. I actually don't ask for much.
Steve and I have looked at places here and there. The last one, a fixer upper, we looked at was in January. We looked at a number of places last summer. One of these places is still on the market, and we have talked about it somewhat. But, overall Steve has lost interest.
This makes me sad.
When push comes to shove, he doesn't want another home. "This is home," he keeps telling me. And, yes, our home is our home. It is a beautiful, comfortable, warm, happy place....that Steve only spends 4 nights a week in. He doesn't want to spend even more time away from it.
"But a lake house would be your home..."
He doesn't buy it.
Call this an occupational hazard. Sometimes I sucks having to deal with these hazards.
Don't worry, I'm still working on him. My latest is that we rent out the property, as a vacation rental. I'm doing my homework, and will present everything to Steve in an organized manner. Steve is VERY slow to warm on ideas (hell, it took probably 2 years to convince him on the kitchen remodel). So, there is a slim hope.
At the very least, I'm just broadening my knowledge of the vacation rental market.
***
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Family is coming into town, and Saturday night we have an awesome fundraising event to attend. It'll be a blast!
The new layout is very nice! However, when reading the current post the photos from previous posts listed on the left overlap the text. I tried viewing it on Chrome and Internet Explorer and both are the same.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this, too. Trying to fix it...although I have no idea how! Wish me luck!
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