Plumbing Woes at Big John's house...

So we moved into our house about a year and a half ago. A week in our new home, we get things unpacked, and we have all the fun of deciding where everything is suppose to go. One morning in the new home, I go to get in the shower. No Hot Water. Long story short, we needed a new water heater. Well, lucky for us, when we bought the house it included a home warranty. So for a hundred bucks we get a brand spankin' new water heater installed. Great deal right! Nothing to worry about for a while in that department....WRONG!!!!

About two weeks ago, I get up on a Monday morning really stinkin' early for work. Hope in the shower, just about done when the water turns ICE COLD! Now that is not a good way to start the day. Rinsing off with freezing water. I get out of the shower, get dressed, and head for the breaker box. That has to be it! Turns out it was, so I kick on the breaker, and head back to my closet to get dressed. I hear the water heater kick on. (it is in the closet) No worries.

After my wife gets up with the boy, she asked if I had trouble with the hot water. I told her what happened. Since I drained all the hot water from the lines, so we had a little air in the lines popping. After a couple of days I figured it would be fine!

After a couple of days we started realizing that we didn't have as much hot water as we should. I open up the hole in the closet were the water heater is, and start looking over the paper work. Ahhhh, under warranty, call the company that installed. They let us know that it is probably the heating element. After a YEAR??? OK, so parts are covered, labor is not. Ouch. $135 dollars, and they tell us that we need a water softener or this will happen again in about a year and a half.

What really bothers me is that we are on CITY WATER. And it has that much lime in it. So there goes our tax check when we get it. Fun fun!

So we think all our plumbing problems are done. Not the case...

So Thursday night is one of Eli's bath nights. So in our "guest bath" we have him in the tub, which he loves to play in the tub! We never use this tub. This is just for Eli, or guests. We get him all washed and go to let the water out of the tub. As it starts to go down, we hear the toilet gurgling. What is that. Flush the toilet. No water going down. Now the gurgling is back in the tub. I grab the plunger. Maybe it is just a little stopped up. Plunge the toilet. Water goes down. Plunge the tub, and gurgling back in the toilet. Hmmm, what to do know. Go back into our bathroom for the other plunger, and oh, the smell of sewage could knock you down. Water had come up in our garden tub, and around the base of the toilet. This is a major problem. I am no plumber, so I have my wife call her dad. Steve is a handyman, and really helps us out in these situations. Well, I know our pipes are stopped up, but is there anything I can do tonight to fix the problem.

We have a plan. In our master bath he tells me to plug up the tub, and the sinks and start plunging really hard in the toilet. No problem, I can do that. So stop up the tub and sinks and go to town plunging the toilet. I can hear the water in the pipes sloshing around. Once or twice I pop the plug in the tub. So Sarah, my lovely wife, comes in to hold it in. We hear a gurgle, and then....sewer water comes up in the shower behind me. Yuck. It is about 10:30pm, and I need to get to bed.

No shower in the morning as I head to work. While I am at work, Steve and my brother-in-law Shad comes over, after renting a sewer auger, and cleans out the blocked pipe. Everything is working fine, and instead of calling a plumber and it costing around $200, it cost me about $35 thanks to Steve and Shad.

Sarah fixed her dad and brother lunch after they got done. She was very thankful for the two of them fixing our problem. Her dad says, "Wait 'til you get my bill!"

Sarah shoots back, "Well, I bet your lunch bill is way more than your plumbing bill."
I talked to my father-in-law after he got it fixed, I asked what do I owe ya, he tells me nothing...I say good, because I ain't got much

This is actually good for us in one way. We were planning on re-doing our master bath, and now that the carpet smells a little funky (why do people put carpet in bathrooms to begin with?) I have some motivation to get working on that project.

I sure there will be more fun blogs about that to come, in my Life in Headphones.