Our water bill has been rather high for the past two months (by rather high, I mean $100+) which means a leak. We spent a month looking for a leak, and we figured it must be our "you-gotta-jiggle-the-handle" toilets, so we replaced the innards of those, but the leak was not gone.
Then we found a mysterious pool of hot water in our backyard by the house. A hot spring in our yard? nope. Looking up, we could see the source--the water heater emergency drain pipe, not dripping, but poring. We went up into our attic to inspect our water heater (yep, we store literally a ton of scalding water, right over our heads, reason #1,356 why its time to move). The old heater seemed to be oozing water from several orifices--hot water. So, we're paying for water AND electricity to make our little hot spring.
The above picture is of the NEW water heater. Here are some fun facts about the installation:
Price of new water heater: $298
Price quoted from Lowes to install: $450 (difficult installation)
Price for materials for us to install: $190 (most was for tools we keep--bonus!)
Number of trips to Lowes for project: 5, so far
Number of marketable skills learned in process: 3
Number of people it takes to lift a 50 gallon water heater into an attic: 4
Number of people we had to lift a 50 gallon water heater into the attic: 2
Number of days without a shower: 2.5
Number of loads of dirty laundry waiting for us: 13
Number of date nights spent fixing the house or car: 9
Call us if you need help sweat-fitting copper pipes, installing dielectric unions, or extending a 240V electrical circuit with 10/2 wire. We know how to do all that now.
6 comments:
...and words of wisdom from Ben:
"Being able to finally take a shower after all that: PRICELESS"
You are my hero! And probably braver than me, too...
I love that y'all roll up your sleeves and get the work done yourselves...so admirable!!!!
We do a lot of stuff diy style, but you really take the cake! I admire that. (Work can be a good date night - good way to draw closer through aggravting projects, right?) I think you need to move more than I do!
You should make some mention of the the guy who taught you the definition of sweat fitting....
Wow, good work. Oh, and the next time you attempt lifting a water heater into an attic without CALLING US to help, you are in big trouble! Wait a minute, you are already in big trouble! =)
Good thing Joe's an engineer!
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