hot water heater: the details

long story ahead: for those of you that care, here are the details of what went down at my house yesterday afternoon and evening.

all things considering, the drama from yesterday could have gone much much worse. let me tell you about it.

my first clue was my hot water. i had noticed that throughout the past few weeks that my hot water to do my dishes and my hot water for my showers just wasn't lasting as long. as a single woman who owns a home, i thought my lack of hot water was no big deal. A.K.A. denial. in this roll of: single woman homeowner, denial and i are very close. if i think something is wrong with my house, i just try to forget out it. push it to the back of my head, tell myself it isn't that big of a deal, and hope that it will eventually go away. of course this train of thought never works out, but it doesn't mean that i don't try! :) lesson # 731 in owning a home: lack of hot water is a sign that your hot water heater is about to break.

lets go to the day of the event. so sunday's are my lazy day. i didn't get to the gym until 10:30am, had a nice workout. come home made breakfast (scrambled eggs with veggies!), chatted with my friend Tina on the phone. watched the session finale of "fresh meat II" and "fresh meat II: the reunion". eventually making my way upstairs at around 2:30pm to take a shower. from their i leisurely got ready, and logged onto the computer. i like to try and blog early on sunday's so i don't have to worry about posting before i go to bed, which is what i do during the work week. i had a few ideas in my head on topics to blog about, but decided to just put it off. at this point in time i go back downstairs with a load of laundry to do.

this is around 3:40pm. once i'm on the main level of my house i hear this spraying noise coming from down in the basement. i look down to my basement from the top of the stairs and on the carpet it looks like it is spotted with dust particles. i immediately freak out thinking it is gas, but their is no smell of gas. i put on my shoes and go downstairs, and when i take that step onto the carpet, i realize it is water. i go over to where the water is coming from and see it is the hot water heater. i see the emergency shut off knob for the hot water heater, but it is already turned as far to the right as it can go.

let the freak out begin, along with the phone calls.

once i turned off the main water supply to the house and the dripping stopped i ran back upstairs grabbed as many towels as i could while trying to stay cool calm and collected. when in reality, all i wanted to do was freak out and cry my eyes out. not because of possible damage or the cost, but because i knew that this mess wouldn't be something i could fix alone. having to reach out and ask for help is something i am not good at. during this whole mess the one person i've really wanted to talk to is my mom. and right now my parents are in germany, so speaking to them isn't an option, and just makes me feel even more alone.

i was(at still am) super grateful that jeremy was able to drop everything at home (including a wife in her 9th month of pregnancy) and come over to my house to find out what was wrong. once he arrived it took everything in me to not just break down and cry tears of gratitude. but i held it together for the most part, so i wouldn't freak him out. ...i'm sure the last thing he needed was an emotional friend of his wife's balling over in a stupor. once he left and the diagnosis was a new hot water heater more phone calls began.

i spoke to shaun who said that his cousin allan would be able to install a new hot water heater tonight, but that it would take them an hour and half to get to my place. ....shaun's family lives on the exact opposite side of town as me. by around this time it is after 5pm. thankfully there is a lowe's less than a mile from my house, and i call them to find out the price and to see if they have a 40 gallon hot water heater in stock. they do! and they are open until 8pm! double SCORE!

as i wait for shaun and allan to arrive i get the chance to take a few deep breathes and truly calm down, and realize everything is going to be ok.

once they arrive and come to the same conclusion that jeremy did we headed off to lowe's to make the big purchase. now i wasn't planning on spending $600 (that includes the hot water heater and supplies, install, and thank you dinner) yesterday. so some money was shifted around and i purchased a new hot water heater. allan did majority of the install and the work was completed by 9pm!

by this time i'm starving! ...last i had eaten was my scrambled eggs and veggies for breakfast at around 12noon. so i took allan and shaun out to dinner as a thank you.

my basement has a concrete floor and is unfinished so thankfully nothing really got damaged. all things considered it really could have been so much worse. so many things were in my favor yesterday afternoon! to have someone come and install this, and have me pay them quite minimally compared to what i would have had to pay, i know i got a heck of a deal and have nothing to complain about. not only that, but to have all of this happen all within the same afternoon, is quite amazing if you ask me.

when it comes down to it, i feel freakin' lucky, and loved. to know that i have some great friends out there, who can help me out when i am freakin' out, i am truly blessed.

i didn't get to bed last night until after 11pm (way past my usually bedtime of around 9:30pm), but such is life. i got a brand new hot water heater installed and got to visit with a great friend, and most importantly in this scenario i got to wake up and have an extra hot shower!

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