... because this story wouldn't make any sense unless you knew that I live in a trailer/mobile home (not that much less anonymous, though, as many other veterinary students here also live in a trailer).
So. The previous owners of my trailer decided, for reasons unknown, to install a water heater not rated for mobile homes. But that's not such a big deal, right? WRONG. They're manufactured differently or something, so there are unspecified risks involved, and it's impossible to get any kind of insurance on a trailer with a normal water heater installed due to said risks.
I did not know any of this until after I had moved in (shame on me).
So. After living without insurance for 11 months I finally started looking into resolving the issue. I did some online window shopping and found a decently-priced unit that could be delivered to a local hardware store and that I could pick up when my dad was able to help install it. Said unit was ordered on June 5th and the expected delivery date was June 15th. That's not too bad, I thought, we can install it on the 16th because Dad has Wednesdays off. I got a call the morning of the 15th stating "it's not in yet." So I called back, inquired about expected delivery date and such, and the only thing I was told was "the order definitely went through. We'll keep you posted."
Fast forward a week, to this past Tuesday. I called the store and was told that "it looks like it may have been received... but we'll call you when we know it's in." Store person was in a hurry to get off the phone. Since my dad needed to know if he needed to drive to Ames or not, I called the 1-800 number a few hours later and was able to find out that yes, the unit was definitely in and that it had been delivered on the 18th. So much for being called when it came in!
In any case my dad and I were able to pick up the unit around 11:30am on Wednesday morning and got to work.
To make a long story short, we did not completely finish installing the unit until roughly 12 hours later. The day was fraught with trying to find the main water shutoff to my trailer (under the living room and roughly in the middle of the crawlspace), figuring out how to get the old unit out (all of the pipes were situated in front of it), figuring out how to get the new unit in (it is shorter and fatter than the old one... it was a tight squeeze), trips back to the store for more parts, figuring out how to get electricity to it (old one was gas-powered), fixing leaks in the pipes, and so on. We thought it was all leak-free and good to go at about 10:00 so my dad started heading home (2 hours away)... then not even 2 minutes later one of the fittings split and water was spraying everywhere. He came back, fixed it, and (thankfully) nothing has leaked since.
It was a very long day.
No comments:
Post a Comment