Ok, my problem started in the fall of 2007. I decided that it was time to get a water softener unit for my home after living there for three years. I was tired of the hard water and the spots on my dishes. I received a recommendation from my brother and got an appointment for the instillation. I cleaned out the utility room and removed a cabinet to make room for the new unit. My brother was kind enough to come to my house to let the instillation person do their job. When I came home that night I discovered that they installed the unit in my garage. I never said that I wanted it in the garage. The two MEN decided that the utility room would be too crowded and I had to pay extra for them to drill holes in the wall and install the network of pipes back into the utility room where the hot water heater is located. Duh…they never listen to me.
In January of 2008 it got extremely cold and caused the pipes on the water softener to freeze and therefore I did not have water in the cold morning when I woke up. The first time that this happened I panicked because I had never had frozen pipes in the prior three years that I resided in my house. I called my brother and he was not helpful. I made the determination that the only new element in the situation was the water softener so it must be the problem. I called the emergency number and talked to a guy who told me to take my hair dryer and try to thaw out the area. The hard part is you cannot see where it is frozen as the pipes are opaque. However, the hair dryer did fix the problem and I had running water again in twenty minutes.
This event occurred a total of four times during the winter of 2008 much to my aggravation. I complained about it but that didn’t fix it. I talked to a handy guy at work who suggested that I insulate it with duck tape and egg crate foam. He had some in his truck so I went home and hillbillyed up my pipes. This did not work and they still froze up. When the water softener guy came for a repair that was unrelated to the frozen pipes he suggested that I get a space heater or place an electric blanked over the unit or insulate the pipes.
Last week I decided to try and be proactive about the water freezing up because it has been so cold. I decided to purchase a $30 twin size electric blanked. This seamed the easiest of the above solutions. I set it up and the stupid thing was defective. It never heated up. I tried to put the situation out of my head until I woke up to frozen pipes on Monday morning. I had to reenact the prior year’s morning routine of dragging my tired ass out the garage with the hair dryer and try to guess what was frozen. It was so cold in the garage that the kitties didn’t even want to come out and frolic in the garage (this is their second favorite thing to do..their first thing being escaping outside…and playing…"I know I can run faster than that giant and taunting me").
I was now serious about this home repair. I stopped at Wal Mart on my way home on Monday night to return the defective electric blanket and purchase some real pipe insulation items. I brought my new stuff home and set about this very definitive BOY task. I have no interest what so ever in doing any types of repairs at my house. I absolutely HATE IT! So with a heavy heart and bad words in my head I began the dreaded task. The first horrible part was reading the instructions. They are so boring. They always want you do follow them exactly…I don’t like that. I bought some heating tape stuff…you know the long cord that wraps around the pipes and heats up. Wrapping stuff around these pipes in the tiny little area was not fun and I usually lack a certain precision on these types of tasks. I eventually got it around them but I wouldn’t call it smooth or even or neat. The next step was to wrap the insulation around the heating tape and pipes. Duh…it was this big giant roll and it didn’t fit around the back of the pipes. So I had to cut it…the only thing I had on hand was a steak knife. It sort of worked on the job. Then I had to duck tape it all together. This was not easy as I kept getting the tape stuck on things…you know the pipe…the insulation…me. However, I did purchase some very cute hot pink tape….it added to the overall look.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I finally finished this task about an hour after I started and I was happy to be done. It didn’t look like any type of professional instillation but it was somehow less hillbilly than the egg crates taped around the pipes and then half way falling off. Guess what…my pipes didn’t freeze last night and the house didn’t catch on fire. Hurray…I believe that this was a successful home improvement project.
What do you think of my handy work? Sorry for the nose shot…it was kind of hard taking a picture of myself.
2 comments:
OMG, the whole "I can run faster than that giant" game just cracked me up. My dogs play that game too, but I don't think they consider me a giant.
Congratulations on properly insulating the pipes! You go girl! The hot pink duct tape was a nice touch.
Rather than mention the issue with the photo, couldn't you have posed for a retake? In fact, you could still do that. Good job with handling that repair, though. I'm glad I know two guys and one woman, who are skilled enough to assist me with such things.
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