It is so nice to have running water. Thursday evening, Malin discovered a giant puddle just outside the house. It was a water pipe leaking – in the same place as before (i.e. 3 years ago – within a year of moving in, the same water pipe busted and leaked everywhere).

Luckily, because it was the exact same problem, our builder helped out with covering repairs even though the home is no longer under their warranty. So many thanks go out to Martin Homes (aka Beta Construction).

When Malin first discovered the leak, she turned the water off at the meter (so no running water in the house at all). It was 5pm and the builder’s office had already closed. In the hopes of getting running water restored that night, I called RotoRooter (the only 24/7 plumber for which I could find a phone number). They said they would come by the house by 7pm. Shortly after that, they called back to tell us that they would be coming by between 8 and 10am the following morning. So Will had to go without a bath Thursday night.

I worked from home Friday so that I could deal with getting the leak fixed (and also because I could not shower or wash my hair, so I didn’t want to go into the office). The guy from RotoRooter wanted $1800 to fix it! He seemed to think it would be necessary to bring in a tractor and excavate a lot of dirt and rocks in order to get to the pipe!

I knew that was ridiculous. While he was checking out the problem, I was able to get a hold of the builder. I faxed them the estimate, and they said they were sending over their own plumbers to deal with it. They came by around 1:30pm and had it fixed by 4:30pm.

And all the choirs in heaven sang in praise, “Rejoice, running water is restored in the Hump-House!”

If you haven’t had to go without running water for a whole day (or more) then you might not see just how bad it really is. Just imagine having to run all of your bathroom exhaust fans to keep the house from stinking – because you cannot flush any toilet. Then imagine not being able to wash your hands after taking a shit. And don’t forget the whining animals that want some drinking water. And coffee won’t help you make it through the day because you have to have water to make that.

Luckily it wasn’t entirely that bad – but it could have been! We had a gallon of water in the garage – our “emergency” supply. We also had ice in the fridge’s ice-maker that we could melt on the stove. And we had lots of hand sanitizer. Despite these serendipitous amenities, it still sucked. And even worse, once the pipe was fixed and the water running again, I still could not take a shower: Malin used up all of the hot water to take a bath!