Rite of Passage

Well it finally happened. One of those things that usually happen to people whom own older homes built in the early 1900’s. We had a pipe burst.

With the cold weather and our lack of basic knowledge of how to open doors and keep the cold spots warm in the house, so something like this won’t happen, last night we had a pipe rupture and cause chaos in the house for at least an hour.

There are a few very important things to be thankful for . . . 1. It broke during waking hours, which means we didn’t have 8 hours of water running in our basement . . . 2. It happened in an area of the house that is “in between” the outside door to our basement and our actual basement, so nothing was damaged . . . and 3. I have a neighbor that can literally fix anything, this guy puts Bob Vila to shame and we are very lucky to be living next to him and family. Seriously, if we ever move and Chris and Christy still live beside us, that will be a major selling point with this house.

“Um yes Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the house is slightly over-priced, but did you realize the man next door can fix your wiring, your plumbing, your cable, and build a garage door opener out of 2 sticks of gum, a hair and a paper clip?

Owen found the leak; actually he heard it in the bathroom and asked, “Daddy, what’s that noise.”

I initially thought it was the water coming back on cause the pipes had been frozen, well I was right in a sense . . . the water was coming.

After trying to get Renea’s attention (she was on the back porch chit-chatting on the cell phone), and turning every valve we had downstairs to the “off” position, I realized that I was going to have to go directly to where the water was coming from. Another good thing, the valve was right next to the leak and once I saw the valve, which was hard to do with the pipe doing it’s best backyard sprinkler imitation, I was able to get the water under control.

Because of Renea’s strong belief that I could control the situation, in about 5 minutes she had called the neighbors, her mom, and two family friends to head over and see if they could help. At one point we had 6 people in out basement looking at a two-inch crack in the copper pipe and they too were turning every valve we had.

Believe me, I was not the least bit ashamed to have these folks over, I have no idea what I am doing, and it was nice to know that I had some back-up.

Chris volunteered to come over and help me fix the pipe (and when I say “help” I mean he does all the work and I watch, although he did let me handle the blow torch). We had the pipe out and fixed in no time (and when I say "We" I mean Chris) and he also brought over some insulation to put over the other exposed pipes in that area.

So needless to say (for the time being, and knock on wood) the crisis has been averted, and Renea and I are taking Chris and Christy to dinner next week. Maybe then he can show me how to make a fork out of a zipper, some lint and a penny.