Sometimes when things don’t go as planned, I have an absurd conversation in my head.
“So, how did you spend your Labor Day weekend?”
“Barbecuing.”
“Relaxing and watching TV.”
“Went to the state fair. How about you?”
“We replaced our old water heater, which was leaking, and we hauled three quarters of a ton to the dump.”
It wasn’t how we thought we’d spend our Labor Day, but it worked out for the best. We ended up getting a lot of work done.
Our water heater began leaking this past week. My husband walked into the garage and found a puddle. He had to sidestep it to ensure he wouldn’t get electrocuted because the water was coming out of a chamber with wires. The silver lining was that we had a three day weekend to deal with the matter.
I began researching hot water heaters. I am compulsive about finding the best deal. My philosophy is not to skimp on the important stuff. There is an old saying that goes something like: “I’m not so rich as to buy cheap stuff.” Sometimes when you buy cheap stuff, you end up paying more for repairs or replacement. (Like our washing machine that we bought at a recycling outlet last year that broke on Monday for the third time.) So while my husband was happy to buy the cheapest possible 50 gallon hot water heater, I needed to perform due diligence.
I convinced my husband on a Whirlpool which has an EnergySmart mode that monitors your water use patterns to maximize efficiency and reduce standby heat loss. I figured the $150 difference would more than pay for itself in terms of energy consumption and it bought us three extra years of warranty on parts and another year on labor. And, something fortuitous happened, without which my husband may not have come on board. When I called my previous landlord, a plumber by trade, for his recommendation for a hot water heater, he told me he had something in his wallet that he has been carrying since we left. It’s a refund for some of our deposit, which we didn’t get back when we left. Thank you cosmos.
Problem was that we didn’t have a truck. When I was an apartment dweller, I didn’t understand why there were so many people driving SUVs and trucks. Now, as a homeowner and parent, I get it. It seems every couple months we need a truck, probably because we bought a fixer upper home. We figured if we needed to rent a truck for the day, we might as well use it to clear the debris from the blackberry bushes that have been sitting in our backyard and tear down the old fence. There was enough to make several trips to the dump.
And thus, a simple hot water heater replacement turned into several big projects.
We woke up to rain on Saturday morning. This meant that the bushes and fencing would weigh more and we would be charged more at the dump. We tried not to let this deter us. Pete used a chainsaw to cut the old fence and then began chainsawing the bottoms of the remaining blackberry bushes. This went A LOT faster than me cutting them by hand, as I had been doing when I had time. He was done with everything in less than an hour. I raked the blackberry bushes onto tarps and prepared everything for Sunday when we would rent the truck.
We made three trips to the dump on Sunday and disposed of almost three quarters of a ton of debris. That’s 1,500 pounds of fencing and bushes. I can’t believe that we lifted that much. It didn’t feel like that much, although it wasn’t always easy.
“Our house is starting to look like someone lives here,” my husband said after we had cleared all the debris.
Polina behaved well. She was content watching cartoons on DVD while we worked. My only regret is that when she came out and wanted to dance with me like Cinderella, a character she reincarnates frequently throughout the day, I told her I couldn’t because I was working. I regret not giving her the minute it would have taken to dance with her, because I really wasn’t giving her any time during that day. Lesson learned.
After making the final trip to the dump at 4 pm, Pete began working on installing our new hot water heater, but why stop there? He decided to install a pressure relief valve as well, which meant sawing at an existing pipe. He worked well into the night getting the right attachment and fixing a leak from the pipe. In a rare instance, for him, of self-deprecating humor, Pete said our previous landlord would have laughed if he had seen him working. I told him if he replaced as many water heaters as our landlord he probably would have done things differently too. Lessons learned.
I’m proud of the fact that things went as smoothly as they did with a three year old. Proud, not grateful, because I think we as a family have matured, largely because circumstances forced us to. I can recall times when we had less on our plate and we weren’t able to hold it together without bickering or someone crying.
Polina was being a good sport. She even got to ride in the front seat of the truck on the way to the dump. It was the first time she got to sit in a forward facing seat in the front of a vehicle. She was taking it all in stride.
We dedicated Monday to Polina, since Sunday was all about us (working, that is). We went to our new place for Indian buffet and then went to a nearby park that Polina loves because of the “big swing,” which she repeats often while we’re eating, lest we forget to take her there. We were at the playground for a long time, not our usual rushed selves. Polina for the first time hung on a monkey bar and swung by herself like some of the older kids. She had a big grin on her face. We came home and after a two hour nap, she asked to go to the park again.
“I want to go to the park right now.” she said politely, but authoritatively. That is one of her longest sentences, if not her longest sentence thus far.
Pete continued to do house projects while I went with Polina to a nearby park. She was so happy. She is happy with the simple things in life, like swinging, or climbing a rock wall, or running. She teaches us what is important and how to be happy, even when things don’t go our way.
Lesson learned.
