First of all…what kind of person do you think I am Julie? Serra~V~ had water lovingly boiled and added to the cold water so she wouldn’t freeze her little tooshie. I also did the same for myself. After diving into unheated pools at 4:30 am in February for a swim season, you would think that a cold shower would be a piece of cake. Not so. I am truely a wus now. Brian is more adventurous and braved it three times I think.
Saturday we spent the day waiting for plumbers and aprovals and garbage like that. We ended up calling the company that installed the water heater. It was installed less than two years ago and was done improperly, connecting the aluminum house wires directly to the copper of the water heater. From the mouth of an electrician that Brian talked to at Lowes, we learned that over time oxidation occurs and in a few years the wires will start creating heat enough to start a fire.
We caught it just it time.
Like I said though we spent all Saturday trying to get the responsible party to take responsibility. Scary thing about it is, no one at that company seems to know about the aluminum and copper rule. Brian was a very good “negotiator” and convinced them to “at least” replace the wiring and see if that took care of the problem. It was a simple fix and Brian could have done it himself in 10 minutes, however, if he were to do that and the water heater didn’t work after that we would be up a creek and paying for a new heater. If they did the wiring and it still didn’t work then we would still have a chance of them replacing it. They wouldn’t agree to a new water heater if the wiring didn’t work but agreed to re-do the wiring properly if Brian purchased the parts for it. So we picked up the correct wiring materials and a guy came out early Sunday morning and wa-la it worked. So we didn’t have to cross a more difficult bridge.
I don’t have a problem paying for replacements on appliances or fixing plumbing leaks etc. as it is part of the responsibilites that come with homeownership. However, when it is truely negligence and ignorace on someone elses part that causes the problem I think they should stand behind their work and make it right. Brian saw to it that that’s what happened.
A quote from the negotiation:”You are very fortunate that we are only asking you to replace the wiring that was installed improperly to begin with. If my house had burned down we would be having a completely different conversation. Don’t you agree?”
Anyway, we have hot water and have enjoyed nice HOT showers. Funny thing – it is working better than it has since we moved in. We had not been able to get enough hot water for two full showers before. Now we get that and it’s still running hot.
We were able to purchase an avacado and lemon tree on Saturday. Dallas let us borrow his truck to bring the Arnell BBQ cast-off here on Friday night so we used it to pick up the trees as well. (They are not so much trees but small bushes really, but the avacado is too tall for our car) We planned on planting them on Satuday as well, but other things took presidence. One of which was Stake conference. Brian had the Priesthood leadership meeting from 4-6. I met him there at six where the Stake provided dinner for us. We stayed on for the 7-9 meeting. We had a visiting authority. Elder Rouche (Sp?) A 70. The meetings for both Saturday and Sunday were great. Sunday we had the Stake Presidency, the mission president, the temple president, and the visiting 70. Talk about a power packed meeting. They hammered temple worthiness and attendance into us for hours and we are determined to take it to heart. We will definitely try harder to take advantage of the semi-nearby temple and the grandparent baby sitters on the way.
After the Sunday session we went to the home of a family in the Stake (Nelsons). Our Stake is starting a Young Married group. Each ward has a representative and will help plan monthly activities etc. to get the young marrieds together and supporting each other. I asked Bro. Nelson if we actually qualify seeing as we have been married for nearly six years. He asked me our ages. Aparently 30 is the cut off for this exclusive group. We squeaked in under the wire at the last possible second. If Brian were older than me we would not qualify. I wonder if they will kick us out next year? We enjoyed the lunch and the other couple very much. There are a few there with whom we have a lot in common. One particular couple: he’s a sports nut and has a lot of things in common with Brian, She is a Pride and Predjudice freak and a photographer. He invited Brian to some basketball games for Ventura College that he has season tickets to and said the women can get together when they are at the game and watch P and P until our eyes pop out.
The Nelsons house looks like it was taken out of P and P. They have been redoing it for years and the details of the period are amazing, right down to the antique wall paper, harpsicord, paintings, crown and base mouldings, flooring , and furniture. It sits high on the hills of the Ventura coastline with a veiw of the ocean that takes your breath away. I felt like I was in a novel.
We arrived back at our place just in time for the SB kick off and Dallas and Dave joined us for football and treats and steaks on the newly aquired BBQ.
Serra fell asleep at 8:30pm and woke up just moments ago at 10:30 am. That girl can sleep when she puts her mind to it. She is now sitting in a warm tub and singing very loudly.
And a new week begins. I wonder what adventures this one will bring?
