Well, my mom got up and went downstairs to weight herself yesterday morning, only to find that the hot water heater was leaking. A pinhole had developed in the bottom of this 19-year-old wonder of manufacturing and this indicated that the entire bottom was likely rusted out and ready to leak more under pressure at any given moment. She came and got me and I called my handyman spouse. Yes, I called him just before 0700 hrs on a Saturday morning, but I wanted to see what my mom and I needed to do to relieve the pressure or at least whether or not we should shut the water off. It had its own water shut-off valve, so that was an easy option. I also needed to ask my sweetheart if he was doing anything yesterday in hopes that he could put a new hot water heater in for my mom! He, thankfully, didn’t have other work plans and I told him that my mom and I were going into Billings for haircuts and would call him to have him meet us at the home improvement store to pick up the new hot water heater so he could haul it out to my mom’s house for us. Mainly, I wanted to give him time to wake up at his leisure and get his day started right since we hijacked the rest of it for him.
Mom and I cleared a path from the basement all the way to the upstairs front door wide enough to get a hot water heater box through without incident. That too, was a project. From there, we left to go to Billings early so we could shop around for hot water heaters before we got our haircuts. We found one at Home Depot that would work the best for my mom’s needs and then went to Subway to sit down and get a drink before CostCutters opened. We stood there at the salon and got in right away for our haircuts. Mine was easy. My mom got an inexperienced fellow, I think, but she’s going to adjust it herself. The fellow really did try! I called my husband as we were leaving CostCutters to tell him that we were headed over to buy the hot water heater and would meet him there.
I bought the hot water heater and got $50 off with my Veteran’s discount. My husband showed up just in time to load it up in his truck and haul it out to Park City for us. That was at 1100. By the time we got the old one drained, went on a parts run, got the old one out and the new one in, and my husband finally was able to go back home knowing that everything was working properly and we had hot water, it was 1700 hrs. He had spent six hours of his Saturday putting in a new hot water heater for my mom. Bless his heart!!! She paid him, of course, even though he told her that she didn’t owe him anything. The new hot water heater works great! End of the day total for replacing Mom’s hot water heater? $950. So, there’s your estimate for getting a hot water heater replaced, but make sure you factor in a weekend call fee if you’re dealing with a larger business entity that your son-in-law! Fun times!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 