The Cool House: It'll be a selling point

Thursday, June 26, 2008

It'll be a selling point

Don't you just love those unexpected roadblocks life throws you? Especially when they are accompanied by 50 gallons of hot water cascading over the basement floor? And your boiler guy is upstate in a cellphone dead zone?
It all happened a couple of days ago when I went retrieve the dogs leashes from behind the basement door and I was met by a wave of humid air (luckily it wasn't a wave of hot water!) and a groaning noise. This isn't the first time that it had happened but last time it was only the relief valve that failed. This time we weren't so lucky. I could see the water pouring out of the bottom of the tank and as I bent down to turn off the heater I could see rust, too. Never a good sign, rust! As I couldn't shift the shut-off cold water valve I had to turn off the water at the mains and wait for The Guy to work his WD40 magic when he got home. Then we began the wait for the oil burner guy to get back on the Island. The short version of the story is we have had no hot water for 48 hours, which means in addition to not so happy humans, the dishes aren't getting very clean either.
Still, as I type, a new water heater is being installed and, looking on the bright side, should we have to sell the house any time in the near future, we can point out our brand spanking new tank to prospective buyers.

4 comments:

NV said...

Bummer! I was in your shoes a few weeks ago, though not in as much as hot water, literally. (Managed to get mine replaced BEFORE the bottom gave all the way out.)

You're right, though. Nice new selling point!

Jennifer said...

Oh no! I'm waiting for ours to fail.. it's 17 years old. But... it's going to have to wait!

I can just imagine the pile of dishes... and NO SHOWERS? ACK!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Not a fun day, but it can be a selling point!

Joanne said...

Oh dear.

I give ours the eyeball every few days; they're older than Jennifer's, I think, and there's one for each unit. Two hot water heaters, plus two boilers for radiators, make me very, very nervous sometimes.