Saturday, May 15, 2004

Cold Showers

The sixteen-year-old hot water heater in our basement started to wet itself when the house-shopping plumber came in for the open house today.  Did I mention that we're selling this place ourselves? Yeah.  Great.  Part-time real-estating. Ask me anything about the "Statement of Condition" form. Anything. Maybe we'll turn it over to a professional in early June.

The water heater isn't gushing yet.  Probably got another hot shower or two in there.  I replaced the thermocouple this winter; figured that would get us through the sale of the house.  No such luck.

Fine with me that the plumber won't be buying the house.  He could've offered to fix the leak he provoked by tapping on stuff.  He just walked around the house, knocking on the walls, looking behind furniture, grumbling about the tangle of copper lines that *is* the ceilingof the garage.  No aesthetic sensibility, this guy. Those pipes all criss-crossing are beautiful and masterfully crafted. Unconditionally, he wins Most Irritating Visitor among the three shoppers who stopped by today.  The other two were upbeat and polite. 

Between online course conversions and house-selling, I've been swamped. And now I've got a hot water heater dilemma to sort through.  Took one call already from a guy who wants $525 to install a new one.  "No," I said, "It's spelled R-h-e-e-m."  Dunno if I can handle replacing a gas water heater on my own. But for 500 bucks, it had better come with a scalding sponge bath.

 Due to post a serious entry at the blog any time now.  Maybe even later today.

Bookmark and Share Posted by at May 15, 2004 3:05 PM to Slouching Toward
Comments

Just don't check for gas leaks with a lit match!

Posted by: Jeff Mueller at May 24, 2004 8:22 PM

We have one of those quick-flick lighting wands for checking gas leaks and so on. Since the flicker wand is already fueld by gas, it should work to find any leaks. Right? Even I know that matches burn wood, not gas. Sheesh.

Posted by: Derek at May 25, 2004 8:40 AM