well, let's see, let me count the ways.
a week ago, went downstairs to get some veggies out of the freezer, and the furnace room was full of water. rising into the boxes of records and books, into the electrical supplies, and headed for the new carpet, walls, and furniture in the basement bedroom. sheer panic and white-faced rage ensued. appeared to be coming from the edge of the 12-year old water heater.
off to the 'Nard to order a heater. we have had some end-of-tank issues for the last two inches of the second bathtub full, so we stepped up to a 65 gallon unit. non-stock, special order, 21 days. double price. slap down the card.
last Wednesday, Cheryl was headed to the doctor after work, and the blower motor in her car died. flat out died. that's now 2 of 2 cars without heat, because The Great White Whale has only blown cold air for a month.
some webifying showed that jellybean Taurii have a little issue with water down the cowling shorting out the low-speed resistor block and blower motor. in 1996, you had to remove the dash. in 97, just a trim panel and the glove box to get to them. yay! so Saturday, as the snow was starting, tore up the front of the car and went to O,Really for the parts.
good news is, we have heat. bad news is, only on high. maybe the switch has failed out, next project. it won't be this week, we're finally in the subzero temps starting tonight.
Sunday we had a work bill all drawn up for DeBasement... build the vanity, Rotozip out the porcelain tile another quarter inch to put the shower head stuff in, finish some lighting in the furnace room, take up unused tools, clean up, shine up, dance a jig and down a jug... the usual stuff. woke up to the sound of snow blowers. OK, cool, and in time to go to church. padded out for the paper, and woo! -- shawn is blowing our snow, and his buddy Steve is here. this is looking good.
decent coupon day. so maybe we'll also check for furniture, since we can see the end of DeBasement's construction.
yeah, they can help us look at some. sure, no problem. oh, by the way, the basement is wet again, and it almost flooded the bedroom this time.
one specious fit later, we go to church, and shawn and steve head off to burn a gift card and get a water softener. this time, it really kicked loose and overflowed the tank during recharge, and the house-original softener left enough wet all over that it's obvious who is at fault here.
came back from church, the softener is on hand. a few measurements and mutterings and surveying the plumbing toolbox later, we head off for furniture.
4 grand worth, as it turns out. head over to the Nard, and we can't Save! Big! Money! on the bypass valves (old ones are of course glued together with deposits) because they don't have any quarter-turn stop/waste valves in 3/4. the Despot had 'em. needed a tubload of other adaptors and crud.
get home, lay out the parts, take measurements, and it would appear we can build out and nipple down and fit the new softener. oh, wait... is input and output reversed from the existing installation? that's a real Microsoft Pipes (tm) game of cold water plumbing we got in that corner, and might have to take a fair amount out to swap positions. it's 5 pm. Sunday.
time to bag it, this could turn into an all-day solderfest, and I'm not going to stay up 36 hours to have water before I have to go to work.
so we don't have any interior lights, trees, etc. up yet, and only the November-hung outside stuff.
Ho, ho, ho. just another day for your average homeowner.
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