WHAT?!??!?! NO WATER??????

Tuesday when I got home from work, my wife - in her most lovingly way - proceeded to tell me that for some strange reason we didn't have any cold water in our upstairs bathroom. Oh NO! I thought for sure because of the great Ohio weather we are having that my pipes had froze...we had never had that problem before, but it was very cold out and the wind was blowing from an odd direction. In an orderly fashion I began banging on pipes and turning valves and trying all kinds of things, but to no avail. I called my brother (who does home repair for a living) and he said it sounded like frozen pipes to him, I needed to find the section that was froze and thaw it out.

I literally tore apart a linen closet in the bathroom to get to the pipes in question. Hmmm...cold to touch but not freezing by any means. (Insert odd thought here) Should I stick my tongue on it to see if it sticks??? Just kidding... :-) NO, I didn't. But I did break out the handy dandy pipe thawer outer (Hair dryer) and let it run for a couple of hours. (insert 2 hour break here)

Pipes are now nice and toasty! :-) Still no cold water. :-( Hot works great...NOTHING out of the cold though. Strange finding here --> Toilet in said bathroom still works! Toilets use cold water... Why? I dunno...they just do... Anyhow, now I am really perplexed because it has water and the sink/bathtub do not. They all run on the same line from the basement, so how could that be??? Sounds like a good reason not to go to work tomorrow... Call off work and go to bed.

Wednesday - Wake up to mountains of snow! OH MY GOOSHNESS (As my 5 year old says). Call my aforementioned brother and tell him he's not so smart afterall. He gives me the wonderful news that sometimes when old pipes get really cold they will flake on the inside and the corrosion will clog up the pipes. Just clean them out. I tore apart the pipes to find that he was right indeed! My 1/2 inch pipes were so full of junk and corrosion that I couldn't even get a pencil in them! Now what, I wondered... The phone rings and it's a new friend of ours who is an outside sales rep for a local lumber yard - we'll call him KS. He deals with all kinds of this stuff and gets me on the phone (Coincidence?? I think not!!! Thanks God!) Anyway, he confirms what my brother said about the corrosion and says that's the good news. I shudder and ask for the bad...replace the pipes is his answer. DOH! We start making phone calls and because of the forementioned Ohio weather, everyone is closed!!!!!!! ACK! Nothing I can do...wait for tomorrow... KS assures me this is a 1/2 day job... call off work again.... go to bed.

Thursday - Now I like hot showers, but scalding is not my idea of fun. With no cold water, there is nothing to offset the hot and make it comfortable. No shower again today - I like to keep my skin on. KS calls me first thing in the morning and is offering to help me out getting everything I need for the job! What an awesome man of God! He stops by and picks me up we are off to go shoping! First place we go is out of everything I need... That's just great. Second place, also out of everything we need. "A truck is due in this afternoon" the clerk says. Whatever... Third place (and most expensive has everything! Woohoo! Load up on materials and head home. KS has to go to work so I am left to my own devices to get this done.

I'm pretty handy at this kind of stuff, those of you who know me real well also know that I've turned my attic into a fourth bedroom, sided my own house, done lots of electrical work and some plumbing. Out of my favorites, plumbing sits firmly below taking scalding hot showers. I grab my stuff, and go to work. It's about 12:30 and I should be done by 6, right? Right...

I won't bore you with all the fun I had, but I will say a few quick tips/suggestions/thoughts...
1) Replumbing a whole bathroom with a tub, sink and toilet takes longer than 1/2 a day.
2) Replumbing a whole bathroom with a tub, sink and toilet is lots of fun, tear yours up and try it...yourself.
3) PVC pipe is very flexible!!!
4) PVC pipe glue stinks really bad for about an hour, then you can't smell it anymore.
5) You see spots 2 hours after begining to use PVC pipe glue :-)
6) 11 degree weather feels A LOT warmer 4 hours after begining to use PVC pipe glue :-)
7) After 7 hours, PVC pipe glue DOES NOT wash off with soap and water! No matter what the bottle says...
8) Turning the water back on after 10 hours of hard work and finding that water only comes out where it is supposed to is an awesome feeling!

Thank you God for awesome friends, family and the giftings you have given me...

I think I will go take a nice warm shower now......