The Birthday Update

So, the birthday seemed to be going along just fine yesterday. Nothing spectacular (they seem to be less exciting the older you get) but nothing out of the ordinary. That is until 5:30 when I walked downstairs to get wrapping paper for The Dad's gifts. Walking through the family room was fine but when I hit the hall something was terribly wrong.

It was like walking through a swamp!! There was so much water on the floor. I checked the mechanical room and I could hear water but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I checked all the rooms and the flooding was contained to the mechanical room, the storage room (about 1 inch on the floor), the hall and the area under the stairs. Luckily no furniture was damaged and most of the boxes that got wet were plastic totes. There were 4 cardboard boxes that were wet but it's probably just miscellaneous CRAP in them anyway.

I finally figured out one of our water heaters was leaking quite a bit of water. In fact I think I caught it pretty quickly because I walked down that hall (which I rarely do) earlier in the day and there was no water. It had probably only been leaking for 2 to 4 hours. I'm so glad this didn't happen last week when we were on vacation because that would have been a major disaster. We called a disaster cleanup company because we didn't know how we could extract all that water. They said they extracted about 75 gallons! Luckily our home owners policy will cover it and all we have to pay is the deductible.

We also called a plumber because here at our house, hot water is pretty important to daily living and they have 24 hour plumbers so why not use them. The plumber got here about 8:00 and assessed the damage. Of course the water heater needed to be replaced and he said there was a lot of corrosion on the other one and it was probably on it's last leg too. If you are wondering, he said water heaters last about as long as their warranty. Our's was a six year warranty that ended in February. Nice! He said he was giving us "quite a deal" on 2 water heaters and he wasn't going to charge us an after hours fee because he had been pretty slow and needed the business. Of course I do realize he could have been feeding me a load of crap but whatever, we needed a water heater. He finished around 12:15.

Recap of the birthday: received a few nice gifts and one really expensive gift (usually I love expensive gifts) a water heater. Since The Dad's birthday is today and I don't want to be stingy, he will be receiving a few nice gifts and I will be letting him claim a really expensive gift, the other water heater. I know, I'm really nice that way.

This is not exactly what I wanted to be spending my economic stimulus check on, but it is what it is and at least we have hot water and a nine year warranty this time!