The Beast Lives Forever More

Well, after only four years, we have a fully functional plumbing system, or so I thought.

We'd been having trouble with our clawfoot tub drain. It really wasn't too big of a problem if you didn't use the tub. Since we now have two working sinks in the master bathroom, we no longer had to wash our hands in the tub, so this wasn't a problem for me. However, my wife has this obscene fetish for soaking in a hot bath with gobs of girly, good smelling herbs and oils. While our jet-tub is fully operational, something about pumping a milk bath with essential oils through the self-heating jet system just didn't sound like a good idea.

So, she demanded that the clawfoot tub be fixed. Otherwise, she proposed tearing the whole master bathroom off the house since it "never seemed to fucking work." I am not kidding. And, I think that she was serious.

Fearful, I called Russ at All Plumbing and asked him to come back to house and fix the drain. He said he'd be out in a couple weekends at 9 AM. He never showed. I called and left a message. He called back and left a message. And, so it went. Normally, I wouldn't have put that much effort into it, but he'd done such a professional job on two previous occasions that I figured missing the appointment was a fluke. Finally, Scarlet talked to him, and he came out and fixed the drain. And, he didn't charge us since "you already paid me to fix it once, so it ought to have been fixed." Great! There was much rejoicing and a hecatomb was sacrificed to the plumbing devil.

Scarlet goes to take her long anticipated soak after a truly suck-ass week at work. She complained that the water wasn't hot enough, and, after a empirical test to prove to me that the hot water heater at the rear of the house made hotter water than the master bathroom system, I went under the house and turned up the thermostat on the offending heater. And, defying all expectations, the water actually got colder. It went from sort of hot to lukewarm. No, I didn't accidentally turn the thermostat down either. I checked.

So, what's the problem? I do not know. I think the heater may need a higher amp breaker. My dad also suggested that due to the length of the run from the breaker box to the heater that we may need to replace the line with a higher gauge wire. Scarlet thinks it might be a bum water heater.

Any suggestions from you clever DIY types? If you have some, let me know.

Plumbing is the Devil.

A Spoon Full of Sugar

Julian electric came out today. The problem with our AC/Heat was the thermostat died. No dead central heat and air unit, no demonic possession, and no 300 pound dead beast in the duct work. I don't know what the final bill is yet, but it has to be much cheaper than an exorcism or a new unit.

Perfidious Fates

There is nothing in the world that I like better than coming home late at night, tired and sunburned, and finding that the AC has mysteriously stopped working. There is a sublime joy in standing in the mud, navigating a bleak, black night with a flashlight, and trying to figure out if there is anything wrong with the unit. It makes you pine for time before modern conveniences, a time before people had any reason to expect anything more than discomfort and suffering from life. If you've never been pampered, you have no idea what you're missing, right?

Maybe it is mere wishful thinking, but I think the problem is with thermostat. The display is dead. Neither the heat or AC will work. The only control that functions is the fan switch. If you switch it from "auto" to "on" it'll kick on and start blowing. I pried the face off the thermostat and found the reset button. That didn't do anything. There is a place you can put in two AA batteries to serve as what I presume to be a back-up for the thermostat, so I shoved in a couple and nothing happened.

We've had a shit load of rain this week. I guess this is to compensate for the last couple of months of drought. My guess is that:

1) the thermostat was fried by a power surge (lightning or otherwise),
2) water shorted out the line the thermostat, or
3) mice ate the wire to the thermostat.

I checked the breaker box, but none of them had been tripped. All the clock and appliance displays were flashing, so I know the power was knocked-out at some point.

The only thing in my favor (aside from the fact the Devil Queen was not full of raw sewage) was that it was relatively cool last night (upper 70's). The humidity sucked, but it wasn't too bad.

Anyhow, I'll be calling Julian Electric to come and check the bloody machine.

Homeownership, the joy of joys.