2020 Just Keeps on Hitting, Even When You’re Down

Christmas is over and the New Year is only a day away, but 2020 still had a few tricks up her sleeve. We took down the Christmas tree and all of the inside decorations, and we set up Jameson’s new Skip Hop foam mat play area he got for Christmas. The other toys were finding homes and all the money he got was put into a savings account for him for future toys and things. The year seemed to be coming to an end on decent terms. The new $600 stimulus checks were on their way to all the Americans in need. I had a few days off work so I could be with my family. And my wife and I both spent our Christmas money on things to make the house that much nicer. Bea bought plants to bring the backyard to life, and I bought stuff so I could paint and finish the paint in the garage.

Then this morning Bea, my wife, walked into the garage to water all over the floor. It seems that the water heater had decided that December 29th, 2020 was a good day to explode and that the Miller’s didn’t need hot water anymore. Oh, did I also forget to mention that my wife and I are also on quarantine pending our Covid-19 tests? And being on quarantine makes it a little difficult to go out and buy the things to fix the issue. Speaking of buying the new things to fix the heater the correct way, we don’t really have a lot of money to do that with. So then came the overthinking, do we use some of the money that Jameson got for Christmas and just replace it later or do we just be a little shorter this month? Bea and I decided that we would dip into the little bit of savings that we had and leave Jameson’s money alone. It was just going to be a tight start to the New Year.

I got to work right away with tearing out the old wet drywall and taking apart as much of the busted water heater as I could today. The main goal was to open up enough of the wall to get some airflow into it opening below the heater so the wood and concrete could dry out. The busted water heater also soaked the walls inside the laundry room and inside of the coat closet at the front entrance of the house. So I guess the garage drywall will be a good starting lesson for me, so when it comes to the interior walls and trim I will hopefully have it down and it won’t look like Jameson was the person that installed it all.

Below are a few of the pictures that I took today of the water heater, damage, and the progress I have made so far. Stay tuned for the entire project from start to finish, and if I learn anything along the way I will pass it along to the few readers of this blog, just in case this ever happens to you.