We have hot water!
My brother came over today and installed our new hot water heater, and I cannot wait to take a shower. We were very lucky because we were able to replace it ourselves – the unit itself (gas 50 gallon tank style) cost around $400 and we didn’t have to pay for labor. In doing some research about choosing water heaters, I came across story after story of people who spent $900 – $2,500 to replace their water heaters.
Public Service Announcement:
Go look at your water heater now. I can’t tell you anything about tankless ones, but if you have a tank style water heater, find the water shut off valve (probably a flower shaped turny thing above the tank), the electrical power or breaker that feeds it OR the gas shut off valve (depending on if you have a gas or electric model – the gas one is probably on the side near the bottom of the tank), and the drain spigot (near the bottom of the tank). See if you have any instructions on the unit. We had a tag hanging from the water shut off valve, and that saved us hundreds of dollars in service charges. The tag told us to shut off the water, shut off the electric or gas, and drain the tank using a garden hose screwed onto the drain spigot. Once we did that we no longer had to worry about leaking water, and could easily wait a day or two to replace it. Even if we’d had to pay a professional, we could have waited until a weekday, and shopped around for prices a bit. Face it, hot water is really a luxury, not a necessity. Sponge baths aren’t fun (well, I suppose they could be), but they won’t kill you. If you don’t have a tag, make one yourself and put it on the water heater so a year from now when it’s leaking water all over the floor you’ll remember what to do.
End of public service announcement. Quilting Day pics to follow.
Piecemeal Quilts 
Thank you for the PSA! It’s good to know the basics so you can respond sensibly when Bad Stuff happens. I learned how to shut off the water main at 3 am once! It’s especially important for women I think, those of us over a certain age were not expected and thus not taught how to do certain things – and I still know lots of women who have never changed their own oil!
Great advice. I just bought a home and had a pipe freeze. The plumber came over and heat wrapped it, luckily nothing broke. But he did ask where my main water shut off valve was. ??? was my answer. We looked and looked and called previous owners and decided it was buried under the front flower garden. Plumber told me the only time you need this is in an emgergency and it’s not the best time to be “looking” for it. I’m having the plumber install a new shut off valve that is easily accessed!
Loving your basket patterns, I came over via your comment on Nicole’s site. How many patterns are you doing for the basket sampler?
I’m doing twelve baskets for the sampler, one per month. We’re up to block 9. I’m also going to post a couple of finishing options.