House Rebirth

The Water Heater install and Lexer sees the hovel

Posted by Cuthbert Returned , Wednesday, May 12, 2010 8:28 AM

Yesterday morning Amanda had a flight, so I dropped her off at Dulles and headed for home. I was really nervous because we had plumbers scheduled to arrive at 7:30 and I wasnt sure I would make it back to the house in time. I got back to the house at 7:10 and crashed on the futon with my phone set crazy loud so if they called I would wake up. Two hours later the phone rang, it was O'neil plumbers giving me a 30 minute curtesy call before they showed up. Installers in this part of the world just don't seem to understand that the people they are installing for also have schedules to maintain.

At 10:00 a giant Ford picup with 22" rims pulled up and two white vans. Out hopped Mike, Shannon, Ricardo, and the new guy who was not long for the company. Mike appologized profusely for how late they were. Shannon barked some orders at the other two guys who set about laying drop clothes in the house into the basement. Mike went downstairs and didn't really look at the plumbing just told us he would be installing a new water heater with a 6 year warranty. Shannon came downstairs took a look at the plumbing asked if we were ever going to finish the basement and scrunched up his face....After about three minutes he barked some part names at Ricardo and the new guy and then yelled at the new guy for not having on gloves.

At this point Shannon asked if the solar water heater was doing okay, I told him considering the panels have been removed no. He laughed and told me he could pull out the holding tank from 1982 for another $100 I probably should have said no but the idea of not having to worry about that ancient tank rupturing in my basement was too good. Shannon was apparently the brains behind the operation and Mike was the customer service guy. Hillariously enough Mike drove up in the giant pickup but Shannon hopped out of hte van with Ricardo.

Ricardo and the new guy brought our new water heater downstairs with the pan for it to be up to code and when they reached the bottom of the steps, Shannon set in to the new guy, "Why don't you have your gloves on???? When this job is over you'll need to shake that man's hand and he doesn't want pipe glue all over his hand..." I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

Shannon had a sort of probe that would tell him how much sediment had accumulated in each of the tanks. He tested both of our old ones and told me they weren't the worst he had seen but if they were still heating water it was a miracle. To this I told him they weren't heating water and thats why he was out here. He laughed and shouted some more parts he needed to Ricardo.

Mike seemed to take a phone call every 5 minutes but inbetween calls he tried to do his salesman schtick with me. I always laugh at these speaches, they are more often than not so over-prepared that they are annoying to listen to and after having worked at GeekSquad I can usually tell the sentences they are required to say.

The first tank went up the stairs with little or no issue however the old one wouldn't drain becuase it was so filled with sediment. The new guy and Ricardo were trying to pull it up the stairs and gouged one of the fiber board steps. At this point Shannon lost it and chewed the new guy out and made him go sit in the van while Shannon and Ricardo finished pulling the venerable bucket of rust out of the house. The install went pretty well uit just took about three times longer than expected. When it was over we had a brand new water heater with a drip pan and a new ball valve. We had also removed two giant tanks of sediment from our water system and the more I think about it this is probably one of the healthiest things we could have done for our water supply.

I got to work at 12:00 and felt like a creton for being that late. The boss was not upset and he laughed about us having to replace the water heater so quickly. He jovially said, "Welcome to home ownership, just when you don't want to spend money something terrible happens." Thanks for the vote of confidence Curt.

At 6:45 i cut out of work and headed for the airport. Lexi was supposed to arrive at Reagen at 7:30 however at 6:50 I got a call form her telling me she had landed already. It had been raining all day and every idiot in town had decided it was a good time to head to Tyson's corner which was directly in my path to Lexi. I finally got to the airport at 7:25 and picked up my sister. We headed for the house but decided we needed to get some supper en route. I had an illusion of going to Wendy's however Tyson's corner was all blocked off so we stopped off at Burger King close to the house.

We got to the house around 8:15 and I gave the nickel tour. Lexi was sad that the house had been let go but I think she saw the potential. At this point we realized we needed to get some toiletries so off to Walmart. We did the usual Walmart afluenza run and yes we got swiss rolls.

When we got back to the house we pulled all the piles of crap from the living room and put them in the dining room and library. Then we set in to shampooing the awful carpet. We took some before and after pictures that i will add here later. That steamvac doesn't cease to amaze me. The carpet that was previously puke and brown turned into a deeper rose (why rose? whoever lived in the house loved pink way too much). We setup the futon and then realized what a terrible idea that turned out to be as we sat on it for an hour and a half shooting the breeze.