Bad Things Happen in Threes

I've often heard it said that "Bad Things Happen in Threes."  This can even include deaths, or so some say.  I hope that death won't be involved in this tale of woe!  My sad story involves the "joys" of owning a home.

A week ago on Saturday my furnace wasn't working properly.  Before my husband and I knew it, the temperature in our home was a nippy 60 degrees.  No matter what we tried the furnace just wouldn't stay going, and on a Minnesota winter's night, a furnace is needed.  We called our Center Point Home Service Plus Plan, and a furnace repairman came to our home at 11:00 PM and fixed it for us.  Needless to say, we were very thankful.  I was also thankful in that our bill was covered by the prepaying we have done for the plan.  One down two to go.

Last week I also thought I'd noticed something dripping in my bathroom, but I dismissed it.  I thought perhaps I had been hearing something else.  Am I hearing the furnace tick?  Am I hearing water from the ceiling?  Am I plainly going insane?  Then on Tuesday morning I called Dwane into the bathroom and said, "You have to listen to this."  Sure enough, Dwane heard it too.  There was water dripping from behind the shower wall.  I had stopped using the shower in my master bath sometime earlier due to water leaking into our closet.  Now obviously a problem existed, but did either of us want to deal with it then? NO.  Now something needed to be done.  Besides the dripping, I smelled mold in our closet.

When I got home from school and Dwane from work, we tore into our closet and did some demolition work.  To make a really long story short, while doing our demo, a finishing nail that had been driven through a plastic plumbing pipe was pulled free.  When I restored water to the house to see what/where it was dripping, we had Niagara Falls in the closet.  I heard Dwane yelling to turn off the water.  The source of the leak was not originally with the nail in the pipe, though.  We called a plumber and Niagara Falls was fixed.  I now have a bigger hole in my floor, and new valves on my shower as well.  My husband and I thought, "Okay, let's put the new valves on, when are we going to have this opportunity to see them again?"  I still have a closet that has gaping wounds, but I have a brother-in-law that is a carpenter.

Yesterday I was going about preparing for evening company.  I was doing dishes, baking, and doing any number of tasks that involve using water.  I commented to Dwane that the water seemed incredibly hot.  It was definitely hotter that usual.  He said, "That could be a sign that the heating element is going out in the hot water heater."   I just thought, "Oh great." 

I continued to go on with life as normal.  We continued to work, took showers, and ran the dishwasher.  Before I ran the dishwasher, though, I noticed the water didn't get very warm at all.  I just shrugged it off.  Our company arrived.  We had a great time and I didn't bother to think about the water heater whatsoever.  When Amy and Rocky left I did dishes.  I was getting them ready to load into the dishwasher.  (I generally rinse them a bit.)  The water was stone cold.  I then announced that "wonderful" fact to Dwane.  Once again we've placed a call to Center Point Home Service Plus.  Someone should be stopping in tomorrow before noon.  Hopefully by the time I get home from school we'll have hot water again.  If not, Dwane and I will need to purchase a new hot water heater.

Now earlier I mentioned something about this being a 'sad story.'  I'm an optimist and I know that all of these problems are just bumps in the road of home ownership and all will be well.  I'm blessed and thankful to own a home.  I know that there are many folks in our country who have lost their homes, so I won't complain.  When this is all over with I know Dwane and I will get a really good laugh out of it.  Heck, I've started laughing already.