I was going to do as little as possible today, and then my delightful wife suggested we go look at shelving/storage units at Sam's Club. My car needed gas so we went. We looked at Sam's Club saw some we liked and some we didn't. Went to Wal-Mart, didn't see any particularly wonderful. Went to Home Depot and then Lowe's but they had only plastic or units with particle board shelves. So we tried this place that gets returns from Costco and found one similar to a Sam's Club model that my wife had liked best. It was only $58.00 instead of $100.00 so we bought it and brought it home. Time: 12 noon. I was ready for lunch.
When I opened the garage so we could begin putting it together I noticed I was standing in water. Oh-oh. I said that the washer tub must have overflowed. Nope! We moved things away from the washer and started looking for the leak. None there. As we moved things away from the water heater there we saw a steady drip coming from the bottom of the water heater. Oh no! Yep, the water heater had given its last.
I called my sister and then asked my brother-in-law if he could come out and help me replace it. Shor'nuf! So while waiting for him I looked for water heaters on-line. My wife called a friend to borrow their pick-up. Everything arranged E and I went to Home Depot and bought a brand-spanking new water heater. We drove home, pulled out the old one, set the new one in place. While E made the final adjustments to the water heater I took the pick-up back. When I returned we turned on the water, turned on the gas and lit the pilot light. NOT!
We tried everything. Unfortunately the new water heaters use an internal ignition sparker and not matches and the ignition wouldn't. We called the manufacturer's service number, did everything they said to do, nothing. We called Home Depot and went through the same procedure, nothing. We called a friend who does maintenance and he could think of no way around it. Home Depot said 'Bring it back.' E started disconnecting everything. My wife called the friend and asked if we could borrow the truck again. I went to get the truck, E had the water heater ready to go when I got back. We returned it, got an exchange and brought it back home. This went in the same as the last one, but the pilot light lit and we are back in business. Whew! I returned the truck. Time: 4:47pm
While I was getting the truck the second time my wife and E began the assembly of the shelfing unit. It is just what she wanted. It is now ensconced in the garage with all of our emergency supplies except the propane tank we picked up on clearance at Sam's Club today. It is still empty. Just didn't find time to go get it filled.
