Minor Emergency

Just as I prepared to open my blog and write a few words, the phone rang. It was our son Dave wanting to know how to shut off the water at his house. I directed him to the shut off valve and we got that stopped in short order. He told me that he could hear running water and everything was shut off. His house has PEX pipe in several places and one of the reducer/T valves had let go. The interesting part was that I had just worked the insulation and protective cover over in that area and I made a perfect trap for the water to collect in. The insulation and vapor barrier was touching the ground instead of the normal 2 1/2 feet clearance it normally had. I crawled under his house and poked holes in the water balloon. Even with a couple of good sized buckets, I couldn't catch all the water and I had to lay out some tarps to be able to get into where the leak was.

Sure enough, the rule of everything breaks in the most inconvenient place held true. Perhaps the factory that assembled the mess didn't figure that having a water reducer right above a furnace duct was any big thing. Thank god I brought the right plumbing tools and could cut the old valve out and replace it with a new one. I will leave the recovering of the entire mess until it has a chance to dry out a little and it is a little warmer. Thank god the entire foundation is secure and it wasn't too cold inside the crawl space.

We made a run to Lawrence to do a little shopping and to get away for lunch. I really like to go into the HiVee store there and pick up a few things. Their meat counter is like the old fashion meat counter and you can see what you are buying and the butcher will package it up for you. They also do some nice grilling items that I use when it is a lot warmer. I think the day time high today was only 30 so I won't be out on the grill today.

Have a great week and enjoy the preparation for the holiday.

MUD