The Washer and Dryer Lines

Last night, in the midst of "The Blizzard of 2010" (the media is ridiculous!) we had just returned from our neighbor's house. Country living is fun when you have neighbors that call you up and invite you over for a snow storm dinner. We had just sat down to watch a Dexter on On Demand only to find that our illustrious cable is still not working. While LeeMichael was on the phone with Comcast trying to figure that out, a transformer on our street popped, filling the night sky with a blue flash and then plunging us into darkness. Luckily, I had already started boiling water for my tea and had already turned on the gas fireplace. Settling in for what we expected to be a long winter's night, we turned on our head lamps, closed the doors to the living room and hung out with the dog for a while.

It was kind of warm and cozy until we started thinking about our pipes - specifically our washer and dryer pipes. You see, the first plumber that did work on our house and eventually left us high and dry thought it would be wise to install the washer and dryer lines through the barn - a non-heated area that is basically outside. Though we asked for them to be moved, they were not (shocking!). So, we are living with it for now and have heat tape on them for the cold nights.

It works fine - until the power goes out.

LeeMichael and I went down to the basement to figure out how to drain the lines. We had thought about just shutting the valves in the basement and disconnecting the house in the laundry room. But that seemed potentially very wet. Instead, we figured we would drain the house, then shut the valves and fill the rest of the house back up.

But LeeMichael then discovered that when the NEW plumber - who is excellent - hooked up the new line to our basement sink (something the original plumber was supposed to do), he installed a shut off in the perfect spot to allow us to just drain the W&D line and the sink lines and leave the rest of the house alone.

Problem solved, we went back up to our cozy living room. Minutes later and inexplicably since there was not a truck in site, the power was back. But we learned something about the house. So all was not in vain.

Only later, while lying in bed, did LeeMichael realize that we never turned the lines back on and we were now heating empty pipes. That made for a quick run down to the basement in his PJs to fix that little problem.

It's always something, but our luck does seem to be turning. In months past, every pipe in the house would have burst and the exploding transformer would have shorted out all of our electronics.

For the record - still no cable. Go figure!