Taking a crack at plumbing

Hey all who enjoy running water,

Last week was a pretty rough for appliances in our house that deal with water. Wednesday night Wendy and I were lying in bed and we heard a drip sound. At first I thought it was the cats drinking water, but it was not. I get up and see that there is water in the pan under the hot water heater. I have not seen this before. I get online and do some investigating. The Internet informed me that if there is water in the pan, then there is a leak somewhere.

The next day my supervisor comes out to the house with me and he reports that the hot water heater is gone. Unfortunately if the hot water heater is leaking the only option is to replace it. We have gas that heats our house so I called the gas company. Someone came by and looked at the former hot water heater to look about replacing it. A crew came by the following day and replaced the old with the new. We are in hot water again.

After we get the hot water heater replaced I notice that the commode continues to run. I find out that the valve is worn out. With plumbing I know just enough to get myself in trouble. I thought I would take a crack at handling the problem. The problem became that I had no idea how to get the valve out, I figure out one part but did not get the other one. Also during this time the tub faucet is leaking. I called a friend, Charles, who came over and helped fix the toilet. We also fixed a sink that I had just shut off the water while waiting to fix. These were projects that I chose to tackle thinking they would not take long, but it took longer than expected. That is why we did not make the Y, if you are interested in history.

I have not fixed the leak in the tub yet, I do not have the right tool to turn off the water. Apparently we have to turn the water off to the house and that is at the street. We thought we had the water off, but did not so Charles and I were singing in shower. I hope to get a proper tool to turn off the water for a time to fix the leak. I do not want to see my water bill triple because someone is taking a leak.

I know that I need to get more tools. I do not have many. Basically, I have a few screwdrivers and a hammer. So if a major hardware store wants to sponsor me, I would be a great fixer-upper.