Whew. January has been a doozy! I saw a meme recently that said something like “I did the 14-day free trial for 2025 and I don’t want it” and I am FEELING that.
Back in early December, we had the fun surprise of suddenly having no water, which resulted in a call to our plumber and the purchase of a well pressure pump. Then, the first weekend of January we needed to replace our hot water heater, because it had been leaking and the leak got much worse.
And that was great. For a few hours.
Until that evening when Jack was about to take his shower and we completely lost water again.
Sigh.
Which brings me to the rant that I unleashed on my poor husband. About WHY it is as a homeowner we suddenly have to know everything?!
Look, I bought my first house at age 24 and had it for 10 years before our current home. And we’ve been in our current home for 13 years. So that is 23 YEARS of home ownership. {Look, I can add too!}
Anyways, during that time I’ve had to figure out everything from being my own IT person to troubleshoot cable, wifi, modems and routers, to being a plumber who can switch out a flapper in the toilet tank as well as plunge a clog. I’ve cleaned out drains. And spackled walls. And taken apart a freaking refrigerator because the fan likes to ice up once a year.
I learned how to restring blinds. I change HVAC filters. And doorknobs. And reinstalled smoke alarms. And detached the water lines into the back of the washing machine to clean out the filters inside. And caulked bathroom tubs and toilets. I’ve balanced all the finances. Negotiated the contracts. And worked with a financial planner AND an accountant to oversee my husband’s trucking business.
And I work full time in marketing. And have had this blog for the past 14 years. And I’M TIRED.
Which brings us back to the fact that we had no water again. And that our first instinct was to try and figure it out ourselves. Especially because we are still playing catch up on bills and have been looking forward to the spring with hope that we will finally, finally, FINALLY be caught up.
On Monday we had sporadic water, which was enough to do the occasional toilet flush. But Tuesday and Wednesday we had nothing. I had to pick up some water gallons at the store so that we could flush toilets and brush teeth. By Wednesday, my kid was out of clean pants, I hadn’t showered in days, and I was DONE.
We tried and tried to figure out the problem ourselves. And save a buck by using our resources of generous friend who helped us with their time and knowledge. But when it comes down to it, we’re not plumbers. And before we went further down the hole of trying anything else, I gave up.
I called our plumber again.
And he immediately diagnosed the problem… we needed a new well pump.
Between the well pressure pump, the hot water heater and the new well pump, we spent almost $4,000 in unexpected bills. Which is one of those ‘well, you own a home…what do you expect’ kind of things. But it sucks. It really sucks.
BUT, at least we should be good when it comes to water for a while (at least I hope so, please knock on all the wood). We knew our well pump wouldn’t last forever (it was put in by the last owners). And frankly, there is never going to be a convenient time to have all this stuff break.
But now it’s done.
And that shower that I finally took on Wednesday night was glorious.