The Water Heater Blues

When Lisa and I bought the house that we are living in now, we were not able to sell our other house, so we turned it into a rental. And for almost 3 years, it has worked out fairly well. We have had good luck as far as renters go. And tax time has been very kind, with that extra deduction and all. Furthermore, since the house was not that old, we have not had to worry about fixing things. That is, until now.

A few months back I got a call from our renter. He called to tell me that the bathtub in the master bathroom had cracked. So figuring that it would be an easy fix, I went and got a fiberglass tub patching kit. The only problem was that it did not fix the problem. In the end I ended up having a friend from our ward, who just happens to be a contractor, fix the tub. It cost a little over 100 bucks, and the only reason it ended up being that cheap was because we were able to just cut a hole in the garage wall, and prop up the part of the tub that was sagging. I was feeling pretty good about getting away so cheap.

Then it happened. I got a call when I was right in the middle of getting the girls out of the bathtub, and getting them ready for bed so Mr. Easter bunny could come to our house and spread a little chocolate cheer. I hear the phone ring, and Lisa brings it upstairs. It is for me. Guess who is on the other line? It is my renters again, and this time something else has gone amiss.

My renter informs me that the water heater, which had only been heating the water half way, had started to leak all over the place. Not the kind of news I really want to get, but what can you do? I tell him not to worry, that I will get on it right away.

So I took the day off from work today to go look at water heaters. It was a 50 gallon tank, and at first I was happy to see that I could get one of those bad boys for under 300 bucks. But I did not take into account how much people charge to install them.

I think that I am in the wrong profession. The cost of installing the thing, plus paying for the permit to install the thing (what a crock THAT is, to have to buy a permit. Just another away for the city to dig into my wallet I suppose.) ended up costing more than the tank itself.

For those that are adding this up in your head, I will let you guess how much this ended up costing me. It ended up being less than 650 dollars, but more than 649. This wouldn't be hard for me to swallow, if it was going toward the house I live in, instead of a place I just own. Oh well, all I can hope for is that they are able to buy it sooner rather than later. And at least everything else seems to be working fine. Uh, I better knock on wood so that it stays that way.

I just need to look on the bright side. My week can only go up from here!