I hate it when I feel water on the carpet

After a very lovely Evening of Excellence with the Young Women two Sundays ago {I brought Savvy to this one and she sat on the front row-- away from me -- and was quiet the entire time. The girl can't do this at home for more than 5 minutes. To say she was enthralled with all those teenage girls would be an understatement} I came home to a sleeping Ruby and a very happy Cade. He had gotten to play a never-ending game of Scrabble with Sammy, my lifesaver/sitter.

I tucked Cade in first, then down to the Basement for Sav. She insisted on sleeping in the guest room. It keeps her from getting up in the middle of the night and waking me up {why this is, I do not know, but seriously this girl has reverted to an infant the last 3 months, coming up with all sorts of excuses to rouse me from my sleep at 2am} so I didn't argue. As I walked into the room the carpet felt wet. Kind of like the way it feels if your kids walk on carpet after getting out of the shower or bath. I was about to scold (nicely, I hope anyway) Savvy for not drying off better before walking in the bedroom when I realized she showered in the morning. Not the evening.

I panicked.

Then I cringed, held my breath, and opened the utility room door, which is right next to the guest bedroom.

Yup.

Hot water leak. Awesome. I tucked Sav in, then tried calling our neighborhood handyman.  I mulled over it as the phone was ringing. The leak was probably about a day old. It wasn't fast. Nothing was gushing...this could wait until tomorrow....right? Aside from the cleanup that needed to be done that night of course. No answer from the handyman. So I called our awesome friend and neighbor down the street Adam for more contacts. He and his wife Annie know everyone. If you need something, they know someone. Adam gave me his reference and then headed over to just take a look to see if there was something he could do to help.

Mind you it is 10pm now on a Sunday night. Yes, Adam and Annie are pretty great friends.

{How convenient for me to have this snapshot of Adam. They went for a walk down to our house to return something and unbeknownst to me, took pictures of themselves with our camera the day after the water heater drama. What a lovely surprise!! ha ha!}

Adam assesses the situation and discovers the hot water heater itself is leaking (no pipes or anything that can be tightened...). Bummer. He gave me the peace of mind that wrapping the hot water heater in towels at the base will serve the purpose just fine and I could call it a night. In the morning he'd give me plumber recommendations.

To make a long story even longer, I quickly called my dad, who knows all things plumbing.  He recently installed his own hot water heater (tankless-ish one) after doing days of research on hot water heaters. We told him a few months ago that when our hot water heater went out, we'd be calling him for advice.  I wanted to give him the heads up that his advice would be needed sooner rather than later. About 5 minutes later, he e-mailed Kyle and I his top picks and I deferred the final decision to Kyle. My head hurt too much to make that kind of decision. I didn't really care how hot water got to our pipes.

The next morning our neighborhood handyman Mark showed up. Of course by then the hot water heater stopped leaking. Of course. It's like you being up all night with a coughing child and then take them to the dr in the morning only for your child to be perfectly chipper with no sign of a cough. Fortunately I had a mountain of wet towels as proof. He turned my hot water back on and said to go ahead and do life as usual and to watch it.

Relieved I could sort of get on with usual daily chores. After a few loads of laundry and running the dishwasher, the hot water leaked again. As if he were telepathically in tune to my water heater, Mark stopped by again to check on it. This time he saw the leaking with his own eyes.  Yep, time for a new water heater.

Moments later my dad calls to tell me he will come down later in the afternoon and get started on the hot water heater, which happens to be in stock at a place in Sandy. Wow. So sweet! I was thoroughly prepared to tough it out for a handful of days before he was available (or the hot water heater). I envisioned showering at the gym, bathing my kids at neighbors' homes or just hosing them down. I had plenty of baby wipes, too. Those are like the same thing as baths, right?

Not only was it so nice to have my dad come to the rescue so fast, it was just nice having another adult around. I forget what that's like. Even though he was in the basement and I was way upstairs, it was just nice.  In addition to finally getting to clean out the utility room (yes, it was out of necessity, but I've been wanting to do it for a while now) I learned a few handy plumbing terms. I have a completely new appreciation for all the critical thinking and planning that is involved with installing a new appliance. This was a big job.

While some days I may secretly dream about when my kids are grown... the reality is you are never done being a parent. If this isn't proof of that I don't know what is!

Yes, I will take dirty diapers over this any day!

So here she is in all her glory: 

 (since this photo was taken my dad has actually done a few more things to "pretty" it up. Some extra electrical work and a bit more black pipe to carry the gassy smelling fumes to the outside.)

Aint she purdy?  She holds 2 gallons of hot water in her and the rest she just does on-demand. No more running out of hot water on Sunday mornings when company is here! :)  {or no more running out of water all mornings after only I have showered!}

By Friday night I had a lot of laundry to fold....I almost wanted to cry but quickly reminded myself how lucky I was to have hot water.

My story isn't over yet. Remember Mark the handyman? Well he called me up and offered to take my old water heater to the dump. Um YES, please!  How nice.

So while this could have been a story of "Oh poor, poor Michelle. She had to deal with a flooded basement and installing a new hot water heater all by her lonesome," it really is an awesome story of the beauty of friendships and families and how blessed I am to know so many great people willing to lend a hand when it is needed.

Here's to hot water!