Water has been a constant issue in the new house. During the initial water test, while we were still trying to get a mortgage and stuff, the test results came back showing Total Coliform bacteria in the water. This isn't that big of a deal apparently. The well contractor I spoke to said that there was more Coliform on the tip of my index finger than there probably was in that water. We had the well shocked, which was sufficient to appease the mortgage gods......but we still won't drink it.
I keep meaning to have it tested again....but I keep procrastinating (as was to be expected really).
The weekend before we moved in, the water heater stopped working. This was the first thing to really go wrong, so we freaked a little. It needed a new gas valve, which was a $400 part.
Thankfully, the heater was under warranty for another 5 years, so the part was free.
One day a few weeks ago I went to turn on the kitchen faucet.....and nothing came out. I ventured into the basement to stare at the expansion tank like I knew what to do....tapped the pressure switch a couple of times, and declared it outside my means to fix. I went to work.
My husband came home that day, did something to the pressure switch and the water came back on.
Knowing there was a problem with the pressure switch, we got a new one with the intention of installing it at some point.
Fast forward to Friday night....around 9:30pm. I'm in the shower. I don't get to shower half as often as I'd like to, so I was reveling in the hot water and soap. My hair is washed and rinsed, and I'm all lathered up in my favorite body wash......
The water shuts off. "F#%@!!!"
Happily, I'm a raging dork. My phone was balanced on the lip of the shower door because I was listening to an audio book while I was in there. So I wiped my hands on a towel and called my husband.
Me: "Honey, I need you to go mess with the pressure switch on the water tank. I'm in the shower covered in soap and there's no water."
H: "Fucking really?" Click.
So I'm assuming he stomped downstairs and messed with the pressure switch. 15 minutes go by......seriously...15 fucking minutes. I'm still standing in the shower....soapy.
Finally the man comes in the bathroom and tells me he can't get it to work. I'm going to have to help him install the new pressure switch. (Well, I'm sure he could have installed it himself, but how long was I supposed to stand there exactly?)
So I wipe the soap off my body with a towel (THANK GOD I had already rinsed my hair), put my jammies on and go down to the basement.
Between the two of us, and google, we managed to install the new pressure switch.
And the water still wasn't coming on.
At that point it was 11:00 PM and enough was enough. I was going to bed.
For some reason, he and I both determined that because there wasn't a lever on the new pressure switch, that it must be defective.
So in the morning, I drive into town to buy yet another pressure switch.
In talking to the nice men behind the counter (who absolutely thought I was an idiot), I start to think maybe it isn't the pressure switch.
So we bypass the switch, meaning there will only be direct power from the electric panel to the water pump, no switch or controls. The point of this is to make sure the pump is working.
No water.
After some more farting around, and google, and calling people who know more about this than we do.....we determine that our well pump has shit the bed. Died. Gone on to well pump afterlife.
As in we need a new one.
So we start calling well companies. We have a submersible well pump. Apparently not everyone does this. The first guy referred me to another guy. So first I called the number on the pipe in my yard that is apparently my well.
Wrong number.
So we call the guy we were referred to.......
HOLY SHIT. Our well is over 400 ft. deep. So that means the company has to bring in a crane to get the pump out. New pump, labor and materials.....$2,300.00 freaking dollars.
Yeah sure...we have that. Just lying around.
So the short version of the next 2 days is that we are borrowing the money from our parents. Half from each set. We should have the cash in about a week.
Until then......I've actually done this before. Maybe 6 months before I met my husband, the well at the house I was renting went dry. A new well had to be drilled. It was a long and complicated process which resulted in us having no running water for a month. 4 weeks. 30-ish days. Think about that.....really think about it....no washing dishes. No laundry. No shower. All of that can be circumvented simply by living around the corner from one's parents. The really hard part....no flushing the toilet.
So...at the time a friend of mine came to the rescue by letting us borrow a 200 gallon water tank with a hose on it. We filled the tank at my parents' house and drove it over to mine in a truck, and filled buckets to bring inside.
So that is what we are doing now. Same water tank. Probably the same buckets. Same level of annoyance.
As my husband said last night, "It's like camping....only not fun."
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