Just add water!

Well this post isn't exactly photography related but, stay tuned and I think you'll see it plays a significant role in my business.
Jolene and I have been having some home ownership adventures since coming back from Christmas vacation. For those of you who have read my profile, you'll know that I like old houses - I'm beginning to reconsider.
Here's the rundown:
- Two days before we left Utah to fly back, our heating oil run's out at home. We have our friends who are watching our house put out space heaters for the cats. Called and had the oil tank filled for $1000! But I'll need to bleed the lines when I get home.
- We fly home late at night - it's 14 degrees. I forgo trying to fix the furnace in the dark and the four of us join our two cats in our king size bed for a night of snuggling to the hum of a space heater.
- The next day as I'm messing with the furnace which won't start, Jolene comes to tell me there's water leaking through our kitchen ceiling. A busted line and two inch hole in the celing. I turn the water off. We pack up and leave our still heatless and now waterless home. We stay with aforementioned friends for a few days.
- We get the water fixed and I go back to figuring out our furnace.
- The oil line is clogged but is soon remedied with some non-EPA approved methods involving a coat hanger and a frisbee.
- There is no filter on the line. One crash course at Lowe's involving copper tubing and flare fittings and I've soon got a shiny new filter installed.
- Gryphyn is sick and throwing up.
- Still no heat. The oil pump is bad. An iPhone search gets me to a heating and A/C parts supplier and I soon have a new oil pump installed. And - WE HAVE HEAT!
- Gryphyn is kind enough to share his ailment with me.
- Four days of (relative) peace
- We're watching a movie and something smells weird. I go out to the furnace and the whole room is filled with smoke and the outside of the furnace is burning hot.
- Shut off the power and oil to the furnace and break out the space heaters.
- Gryphyn is sick and throwing up again.
- Call the furnace professionals this time. They will have someone out on Monday - of course it's the weekend.
- 12 year old clothes dryer stops working while tending to the items Gryphyn blessed with his illness.
- Buy new washer and dryer at Home Depot - they'll be delivered Wednesday.
- Monday morning we take Gryphyn and Vahn to their music class and to lunch.
- We come home to see a shower of water from the ceiling above our back door. I shut off the water (again)


That's my back door (I came in through the front :)


Every laptop dies - not every laptop really lives.
A tough situation even for a Mac.






The water busted in the back of the house by the jackets hanging in the distance. It traveled under all the carpets and came out the front of the house along the foundation. It also took a tour of the bedrooms and master bath.


- Between calls to the insurance and water mitigation companies, family, some friends and a hotel - Gryphyn decides to spike a fever again and we got him to the doctor to find he has a bi-lateral ear infection. His first.
- While we're at the doctors office the furnace repair guy calls. He'll be at the house in a few minutes. Thanks anyway.
- We lock the cats in the bedroom with a space heater and head to Holiday Inn.
- Tuesday the water mitigation company tears out most of the rest of my kitchen ceiling and tells me they need to do the same to a few walls. Tomorrow they'll be removing my furniture along with all the carpets.
- The insurance company wants to know why I'm staying in a hotel.
- My iMac is casting a glow on the three people sleeping behind me in our hotel room as I write this. It's a little after midnight.
- My new washer and dryer will be here today. awesome.