Plumbing Nightmare

As CountryBoy and I were leaning toward the Dream Valley Farmstead name we laughed and said it was more of a nightmare rather than a dream, ha!

But, before I continue with our story and before I forget I promised y'all the link to my Facebook page for the farm.  Click HERE if you are on Facebook and want to follow us there.  And, don't forget to hit the Like button while you're there!

Now, let's see, where were we...

I mentioned that we were hit with a snow storm and WAY below normal temperatures for this area.  Several nights we were in the negative digits.

I also mentioned that the propane company delivered two 50 pound tanks the day we arrived.  The reason they didn't fill the existing large tank that was already on the property is because our bridge over the stream needs repair and they do not want to drive their large delivery truck over it.  Unfortunately, repair to the bridge won't take place until Spring when it warms up a bit.

The two tanks were the solution for the previous homeowner during the winter and apparently it worked out fine for their typical winters.  But, they didn't work this year; they froze up when we had the three gas heaters going at the same time.

Thankfully, the propane company was able to fill the big tank earlier this week with whatever they had left in the tank in their small truck so we are running the small gas heater where we are sleeping, one kerosene heater in the hallway and the other kerosene heater in the bathroom to help keep the pipes from freezing (and me when nature calls in the middle of the night, wink).

Speaking of freezing pipes, let me fill you in on our plumbing nightmare.  Our water was froze for two days.  Thankfully we had some bottled water for drinking and making coffee and we were melting snow on top of the kerosene heater to flush the toilet.

 As far as showers?  We did without.  

The water finally thawed on the third day and that's when the fun began.  OK, so not really.  I went in the bathroom/laundry room and I heard a hissing sound.  That can't be good when none of the faucets were running.  We narrowed down where the sound was coming from then shut the water off.

CountryBoy cut open the wall between the shower and the washing machine and found the busted pipe.

Thankfully, we had all the supplies necessary to fix it.  And the next one.  And the next one.  And the next one.  It was like a domino effect.  Once the busted pipes in that wall were fixed the pipes in another wall started busting.

Fix one, bust one.  Fix one, bust one.  And, from the looks of this wall when we opened it up, there's been a leak for quite some time.

Some thirteen or fourteen busted pipes and two days later we finally had running water.  Yay!  Time for some very much needed showers!

This wall is still open since we need to replace some of the wood and the floor is temporarily covered up since we will eventually renovate that room.

A day or two later, we woke up and the water was frozen again.  Thankfully, it thawed fairly quickly and there were no more busted pipes.

The following day, we woke up again and there was no water.  Come to find out, the water tower was empty and would be night time before we had water again.  How does the tower run out of water?  I'm not sure, but it did.  I'm just glad our gracious neighbor texted to let us know otherwise we would've thought that the water had froze yet again.

This morning, we woke up with running water and a somewhat toasty house.  It was so nice!

GoneCountry