Hot Water Heater

On Tuesday Cathie sent me downstairs to check and see if the pilot light was out on the hot water heater only to find that it had died, leaving lots of water in the basement. I cleaned up the water and called Sears to find out what the easiest model would be to replace this with. While I was on the phone with them, I noticed on the web site that the new model ($500) came with a 12 year warranty. It turns out, so does the one i have now. After talking to them for a while, they agreed to replace mine at no cost, except for installation. Meanwhile, we had no hot water, thus no dishwasher and very cold showers.

My brother-in-law Kevin and family came down Thursday to help me remove the original one and install the new one. My sister Susan spent most of the time making flemmy chicken noodle soup and laughing about our kitchen. It wouldn't have been a tough job for people who knew what they were doing, but both Kevin and I were a little lacking in the "copper soldering" department. After 7 hours non-stop and 5 trips to the hardware store, we called it quits at about 11pm and decided to start fresh in the morning.

After another couple of hours, we got it working, short of a couple minor leaks that will hopefully stop soon. Kevin's the kind of guy who knows how to do just about anything around the house and is willing to lend a hand to anyone to get the job done, no matter how nasty. He came down last year and and built a deck for Jon and he's helped me on a bunch of projects around here. He may suffer from male-pattern-baldness even though he's not yet 30, but he's a hand brother-in-law to have around, not to mention he can help Nate and I beat any video game level we get stuck on.