Don't you wish you lived with us?
In "1900s House," Ilene chronicles the chain of events that stretches from our hot-water heater leaking like the Titanic, to replacing said heater ourselves ... IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT ... and then on to the little one throwing up all over ... and over (and on her favorite stuffed cat -- Chococat). Hot water -- that's ... hot.
We had a recent debacle with our hot-water heater. Thank God we're still renting and our landlady allowed us to take it out of the rent, but still - four days without hot water is no picnic.
Darleene, I follow the philosophy of Mr. Miyagi (from "The Karate Kid"). It's Wax on, Wax off -- I just ripped the dead one out, motored it to Home Depot, grabbed one, got a couple rolls of teflon pipe tape and, with Ilene's help, muscled the new one in. Sure, I've been "preparing" for this moment -- this momentous moment -- by doing about 30 other plumbing jobs. All this will lead me to my next triumph: buying a pair of pipe wrenches and ripping into the galvanized to replace our dead pressure-reducing valve (that bell-shaped thingy near the main water shutoff). ...