deadwaterheater11

You need your coils cleaned, ma'am!

Hey, don’t you worry none about my coils. They’re fine just like they are!

So, the faithful Sears man showed up first thing this morning. As you might recall, both the water heater and the refrigerator went out the day before my scheduled trip to Captain’s Weekend at Cabela’s in Gonzales, LA. Thank God for young people. I left and my daughter (25) and my son’s girlfriend (26) figured out what to do with the boys, and the food, and the animals and everything. Homeschooling really works!

Today I took great joy in cleaning out the refrigerator before the repairman came, wiping shelves and cleaning out drawers, whistling while I worked (not really). The Sears man wasn’t even there an hour when he announced that the problem, a broken electrical switch on the compressor, was fixed.

Hours later, I took greater joy in transferring the food from the ice chest to the newly cleaned frig. Now, it’s feeling more like home and less like camping out.

But what about that water heater, you might ask? Well, that is something I do not take great pleasure in talking about. We have been without hot water for 5 days. Spit baths just aren’t what they used to be, know what I mean? All I will tell you about the water heater dilemma is that if I were to buy one from a place that also installs them, it would cost me about $800-$900, but it would be done correctly. No thank you. I’ll keep working on this little problem myself. It’s amazing how motivating a nearly 1K price tag is!

Termite and I yanked that old thing right out of that little closet it sits in and let it slam to the ground. You’re probably scratching your head over this one. This is a pretty old place we have here, and for some reason, Bayou People put their water heaters outside in little closets built next to the house and elevated off the ground. Hopefully, your water heater won’t get full of saltwater when it floods, and this way you don’t have to cut any extra vent holes in your ceiling. That’s the best I can figure.

Now, I have a broken water heater closet, and one crippled, slightly used water heating lying on its side (or back or belly) in my back yard.

deadwaterheater1.jpg

Next, I made a phone call to my favorite hardware store, Morrison’s, and talked to my favorite plumbing sales person, Nena, and with all the expertise of a lady plumber, I ordered a 40 gallon gas water heater. And don’t forget the 12-inch stainless steel flex hoses, with all the necessary connections to hook up to 3/4 CPVC pipe, both incoming and outgoing. (Yes, incoming. Never mind. Unless you do this work, it won’t make sense to you, anyway.)

Being the good and thorough sales person Nena is, she asked if I needed glue and cleaner. No, thank you. What about Teflon? Oh, yea, go ahead and send me a small roll. What about your incoming gas line? Well, maybe, but I can’t tell what size it is. Never mind. I’ll just use the one I have. Thanks, anyway.

“And Nena, can you put this on my account?”

Nena calls back one hour later with a total and tells me she got my account limit raised a little to accommodate this purchase and that the delivery will be here some time Wednesday. Thank you , Neens (we’re tight now, like plumbing soul sisters), you’re the best!

There is only one problem with this whole plan of mine. The weather has been like spring for the past 4 days, and tonight the temp’s supposed to drop down into the 30’s.

Great. I hate being cold. I hate working in the cold. I just don’t know if I can do it.

to be continued . . .

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2 Comments

  1. I must say…..when it rains on you it pours! You poor little critter. I hope to Heaven you and the gang have hot water in the morning. Dang. Glad the fridge. is fixed.

  2. i second KatyBugs post. I have total faith in you and Termite. It may not be the smoothest job, but it will be done well and you’ll be belting out old fashioned rock and roll tunes in the shower by evening time!!!
    Debbi
    BTW, yes, old timers built water closets on the “outside” of the house to avoid the carbon dioxide build up in the small bathroom/kitchen area’s. Daddy was a carpenter and I was a very inquisitive Daddy’s righthanded little girl…lol