Out with the Old and In with the New

Last week Brady came to my room after taking a shower and told me we didn't have any hot water. Oh great! My water heater is broken.... I have been waiting for this because it has been really really hot water for a while and I knew that wasn't a good sign. I had it repaired last year and here it needed another repair this year. I decided I would just replace it.

Later that morning we had hot water again - so that meant that it wasn't completely broken, it was probably just one element because it ran out really quickly. I called the plumber I like, Allen at Cloverdale Plumbing and scheduled an appointment. He couldn't do it until Tuesday morning because he was finishing up a re-model. That was fine, we could limp by with half a water heater. It was challenging for my teenage son who has to take a 20 minute shower-LOL! I remember those days - what a waste of time and water. Now I'm in and out in 5 minutes. Brady didn't like it one bit that he had to hurry his shower process :-D.

I ended up taking Tuesday off of work and he arrived later then expected at 10 am. It also ended up being another plumber Andrew and not my regular guy Allen. After showing all the weird stuff in my house built in 1900 with no foundation and built on boulders - yes it is true. Showing him the terrible crawl space under the house - ugh - I wouldn't go down their with all the spiders--eeeek!

We went through a couple of scenarios to finger out what to do to get my water heater up to code or up to date with the current laws. It had to have a drain pan and a drain line to take the water out of the house if it ever leaks. We looked at moving it to the room where the heater is and out of the wash room in the center of the house. That option would have made a lot of re-plumbing which equals extra cost.

I decided that I would keep it where it was and do the upgrades needed. Here is the new water heater in my wash room. PCB pipe for the drain and a draining pan at the bottom.

While I had a plumber here under the house, I asked if he would bring my turn off valve for the water system of my house up out of the crawl space, so that I could turn it off in the case of an emergency. Which I've had -  water running from a busted pipe and I couldn't turn off the water - and there was NO way I was going to crawl under the house - eeeeeek!

So, I had him bring the turn off valve up to where I can turn it off with ease. You can see it at the bottom of the water heater by the gold pipping. Yeah this totally makes me happy!!

Because my water heater is in the middle of the house, it would have been quite a big deal to have a drainage from the water heater to the outside of the house. We discussed just draining it through the drainage from my washer. He put in a new professional box for my wash water outlets and had both the water heater and the washer drain into the same drain. It worked out great and now it looks professional - I should have taken a before picture to help you understand how wonderful this is.

I love getting updates to my house - a little at a time. Next I really want a water softener. I know!! I don't have one - and need one. Maybe this summer.

I'm thrilled that everything is new, that I have a turn off valve for my water supply and I'm good for quite a few years - in a new Water Heater! Yeah!

 It was a long day - Andrew didn't get done until 4 pm. Brady was out of school (for Senior projects) and was on the computer all day. I was bored - with nothing to do but watch TV... It's weird to be sitting around all day twiddling my thumbs. I made bread, cookies and watched TV while I waited for my new water heater ..  It was a relaxful day!