My Sunday

I had to venture under the house again today. The water heater had a burned out element. This is a straight foward job. Turn off the water. Turn off the power (critical step). Drain some water, switch the element, electric and water back on. I can be back laying on the couch in thirty minutes.

This job turned out much more like an episode of the 3 Stooges.

It went something like this:

A trip to Lowe's for supplies. Got home and realized I needed one more thing. Cari ran back to the store for me. Ok. You all should know how I feel about being under the house by now.
Well, I shut off the water at the meter. Turned on the bath tub and waited ten minutes.
I don't have a lot of paitence. I am part of the generation that wants everything NOW. The age of fast food and sound bites. If something takes longer than 10 minutes, it isn't important.
I started to unscrew the old element. Water started shooting out onto me, it was gushing down the side of the water heater, soaking the clay under my feet. It took a good thirty seconds for me to figure out that screwing it back in would stop the flow.

I quickly pulled the old one out and shove the new one in there. Tightened it down, and saw the rubber seal popping out from under it. Dang! Looking over the old element, I realize the old seal stayed in the hole. Now the two seals are twisting each other out of shape. I went out to the meter to turn the water on, then check for leaks at the heater. The water was never fully shut off! The tank would NEVER have emptied. Sure enough, the element leaked.
Water back off, and me back under the house. I waited a good half hour while it drained slowly through a hose. Finaly went back and finished repairing the seals.

I'm wet. It's 50 degrees, and windy. We're having fun now!
Got everything put back together and it all works great. . .more than three hours after starting.