Sunday, January 18, 2009

The view from my window...




Birds...snow...



(still keeping them in feed! Yay me!)


I am rewarded with visits from Mr. Big Red Cardinal and his wife...I'll try to get a pic of her soon, she comes by a lot lately...


News? We were without water for almost 3 days!
John just finished replacing our leaking/dripping/nearly running faucet in the kitchen. So there was no more leak at all! It was a beautiful thing! We bought a new faucet, and a drinking water spigot attached to a under-sink filter. Beautiful.
Then, it got cold out. 3 days of -3 below zero meant frozen pipes in the kitchen. No water in the kitchen at all, though the water in the bathrooms was still running...thank goodness! But no dishwasher, no 'official' drinking water from the new tap John put in...
The pipes froze somewhere by the sink...there was a large icicle leaking 'out' of one of the pipes(!)
I called the plumber, and for $69 he told me they hadn't 'burst', no, just were frozen. And the icicle was probably a frozen drip from when John put in the new faucet. And the man could thaw the pipes. Yes he could. I could have my kitchen back to normal without waiting for the weather to get warmer if I just sign here, right next to the $309.
$309 additional to the $69. And no, that did not cover any additional work, like say, if they needed to fix a actual burst pipe that might make itself known once the water was running again...also would not cover work needed to fix the drip that caused the icicle...
But I signed anyway.


I 'OK'd' the work. They brought in this big box and all this cable and began to attach one end to the downstairs bathroom's water and...


And if no pipes were burst, then they were just thawing my pipes. Just like Bob Vila (of "This Old House") showed me how to do online with a hairdryer...or by pouring boiling water over a towel-draped pipe...so for an additional $309, I was being spared the trouble of hanging out uncomfortably under the sink for a while...$309! $309! $309 + $69 = almost $400! (too stressed to do actual math)


I found myself yelling "Wait! Stop!"
I am telling you this in case you are ever in a situation where you need to do this. It was embarassing, for sure, but why? It's our money, and they hadn't actually begun the work...(though they were seconds from turning that machine on...)


I thought something up quick: "I need to ask my husband before I can spend this much money."
Good one! Blame the husband! He, not I(!) was the one to blame, the one giving the 'stop work order'. Yay for stingy husbands! Yay for blaming others!


So, they stopped! There was some shrugging, some sighing, some shuffling of feet and paperwork while I called John...but really, I suspect they deal with this a lot (they were already rolling up the cables by the time I was speaking with The Husband). I mean, people balking at price. Well, good for the balkers! Balk if you can! We ended up spending some money, but not over $100.
After the blowdryer did not work, we bought one heat gun, two spaceheaters and 2 new electrical cords (and a few hours of John under the sink) and now have running water again. It is also warmer outside. So we could have just waited for a few days, I suppose.


On his way out, the plumber said that once our water was running again, to make sure we leave it 'running slightly', or at a fast 'drip', when the weather gets this cold, and that would prevent it from freezing again.
Live-n-learn.

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About Me

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Mamazakka is Mommy blogger Autumn Sousanis; also-known-as Autumn Dunbar; and also-known-as "Mama" to six little ones, ages 9, 7.5, 5, 3.5 2 and a 3 month old! :) Busy,yes. A graduate of C.C.S. (Center for Creative Studies, School of Art and Design in Detroit) with my bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, I have finally found my calling as 'Mamazakka', maker of everything and anything that might improve your home, life and outlook. :) It's my goal to create things that truly meet Wikipedia's definition for 'zakka'; (here's an excerpt)..."cute, corny, kitschy is not enough. To qualify, a product must be attractive, sensitive and laden with subtext." Oh yeah! You betcha! Well, that's my goal, anyhow! I'm also known as an over-user of exclamation marks(!) and parentheses (can't help it) though I do try to keep my smileys to a minimum :)