Water Woes…leaks, broken appliances, and more!

Welcome to the last week of 2017!  In the last two weeks of 2017, I was quite pleased with myself.  We purchased a new fridge (awesome deal because it was a scratch and dent model) and a new dishwasher (Christmas present to myself and my wife).  Sure, my kitchen will be the same old kitchen but two of the appliances are shiny and new.

Then I opened the letter from the water department.  It nicely stated that we might have a water leak because our water usage was higher than normal.  My first thought was excessive use of the shower by my two teenagers but that was quickly dismissed by shutting off the house water main in the house.  The water meter was still moving.  Ah…a nice slow leak between the meter and my house.

Not to worry…I have a step-cousin in the water line repair business.  He has a big house and his kids are in private school so I’m sure this will be a cheap fix.  He also likes to take fancy vacations….

Then my son tells me that the water main value in the garage is leaking.  This is the same water main value I had turned off to determine the other water leak.  Sure enough, it was leaking.  After three trips to the local McLendon’s Hardware store and three hours, we had replaced the broken gate value with a nice new ball value.  (That’s fancy man talk there).  I thought for sure my soldering job would cause a spray of water all over but I’m pleased to report that it didn’t leak at all.  Considering I haven’t repaired a copper pipe in about ten years, I did pretty good job.  $32 in parts, three hours of my time, but I missed my Aunt’s Christmas party (that was disappointing).

The next water related item: my sister and Mom managed to jam up their garbage disposal.  So I had to pack up my tools and head over to their place.  Luckily, it was merely a jam and the disposal didn’t have to be replace.  Yeah! One “win” against the Water Woe Wars!

Along with the new fridge, I mentioned I got a new dishwasher.  I paid for the removal of the old one and installation of the new one.  No problem there except that it was installed on Tuesday December 26, I didn’t use it until Thursday December 28….and it ran for half a cycle.

I tried to cancel the cycle, I tired to drain it, I tried to resume the wash cycle, I even flipped my breaker on and off and tried to do a new wash cycle.  Yet, my new Maytag dishwasher won’t do anything now.  Not to worry, it is a Maytag and under warranty.  I had the delightful pleasure of sitting on hold for 20 minutes and then the system hung up on me!  Awesome.  So I did an online chat support and now have a repair tech coming out on Tuesday, January 2.

Back to the outside water leak.  The water leak detection crew finally made it out on Thursday to find the leak.  Now, I have my cousin’s crew out here digging up my yard.  I’ll let you know what they discover.

And the last two items of water problems…leaky bathroom sink faucet and a broken bathroom sink faucet.  My son’s bathroom sink faucet started to leak.  Now, it might be a washer but the cold water handle is also a bit broken so I’m just going to repair the whole faucet.  And of course, my bathroom faucet has been broken for about three years.  The hot water side is messed up so I’m just replacing it as well.  What the hell, right?

In the meantime, enjoy your final weekend of 2017.