When they brought the pipes up into the garage in this house they built a frame around them and filled it with insulation. That is a good idea until the tenants don't use water for over 24 hours and its 19 below zero.
This house at least has the water heater in the garage so there is sort of a tiny little bit of a heat source, but open the door to drive the car in a few times a day and inside temperature gets real close to outside temperature.
On Saturday I told Sharon I was going to go buy a bunch of insulation bats because it was going to be a long cold holiday weekend. By Tuesday evening I had used all the insulation I had bought but everyone had running water. Both of the tenants whose pipes froze were exceedingly kind and thoughtful.
Jason crawled under the house to see if he could find the problem before he called me. He had looked up on the internet how to fix frozen pipes and thought he had a plan all laid out before he called. I just took a gallon of hot water with me and they had water again in 2 minutes. I had an advantage because we trace the water lines and electrical and look at the heating systems before we purchase a house. I knew where the spot most likely to freeze was. Jason felt a little bad that he called me when all it took was 2 minutes. I said to him, "fine, a gallon of hot water fixed it and where would you get a gallon of hot water? you had no running water." I wasn't about to tell him where he could have gotten that hot water out of his own water heater. I would prefer to go fix this issue myself.
Delinda called me the next day after 8 am. Her water was frozen the night before when she got home. She didn't want to bother me late at night and didn't want to wake me up in the morning so she waited till she was at work to call. I was heating the pipe when I thought what is that noise? Ah the water in the tub was turned on full bore. I knew the pipes were unfrozen. How does one know which way is off if there is no water.
This week really reinforced that we have some great people living in our houses. I did a pre-inspection walk through on the house Kirsten lives in. As I was about to leave I noticed I could see daylight between the north door and the door jam. I asked Kirsten how long it had been like that. She said she noticed it late summer after a very windy day when the the door blew open. I asked "why didn't you call me? That was a brand new door when you moved in. It should not leak air. You have been spending way to much to heat the house against the subzero temperatures." "I didn't want to bother you" she said. Kirsten, it is no bother to come and reset a door. I would rather do that than have your heating bills go up.
The house that gave the most trouble in the cold weather was the one we live in. When the house was built the plumber in his wisdom thought it was a good idea to run the water supply for the kitchen sink up between the studs in the exterior wall. Now the total insulation in the walls of our house is 3/4 inch blackboard. As you can imagine I spent my mornings with a hair dryer blowing hot air along the pipes and then shoving insulation in around the pipes with a rod when they thawed. I did that 3 mornings and I am still not sure if there is insulation in the right place. I made the mistake of saying to Sharon, "you know, if this was a rental I would open the ceiling in the basement, drill holes through the floor and move those pipes in a foot and then put the sheet rock back up and solve the problem permanently". She thought we should not have to live worse than a tenant and I should maybe get that done. What do they say, the mechanics car always need a tuneup and the plumbers faucets drip. I think I will put this one on the list though and get it done.
Micah and Matthew went with us to Ottumwa to eat at the Appanoose Rapids Brewing Company. One of them asked us as we were about to park at the restaurant if we had reservations. You know, when the temperature is hovering under zero you really do not have worry about the crowds. I am not saying it wasn't real warm in the place but do you see the boys in their coats. But the food was good and it had a cool atmosphere, (get it, a cool atmosphere, don't you hate it when people have to explain their jokes).
On Wednesday I was in this house fixing a light. The pull switch for the light on the ceiling fan in the living room was stuck on "off". I had stopped to pick up the rent when Bonnie said "Oh my living room light doesn't work. I didn't want to bother you but since you are here, could you...?" Sure. So I had no ladder or anything with me and had the bottom off the light trying to reach everything by standing on tiptoes when Micah called. "Um Dad my car doesn't start very well in cold weather." I finally got that translated into, I am at work and my car is in the parking lot and is not going to start. I drove to Pella and Micah got out his jumper cables. We hooked up to my pickup and that baby started like a charm. I was really, really glad we could drive to his house and change out the battery in his garage instead of in a below zero wind chill. We went up to Arnold's to get a battery and were lucky enough that they still had the one he needed on the shelf. The man at the counter said they were getting low on batteries in stock. Boy I wonder why that would be. As we were driving back to Micah's house I just kept thinking of what had happened last time Micah and I played at being mechanics.(you can read about that fiasco in the post "I think we should stick to houses") This time it was a simple enough fix we could conquer the problem and the car started. "yeah us, what a good job"
So it has been a laid back week. I was planning on putting a floor in a cabin for Lake View Camp this week but it was way too cold for me to want to do that. Maybe that means I am getting old and soft. Or maybe it means I am getting smart enough to know there is a time to take a break and I don't have to feel guilty about it. I think I'm going with the getting smarter idea because I am still somewhat in denial about the getting older.
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