Catastrophic was the word I always used

[rootofnewt]

We bought this house in December 2004. Since then, we've had this conversation every few months:
krasota: We should think about replacing the water heater. It's 18-19-20 years old.
explodingcat: Yeah?
krasota: Yeah. Because when they go, they go big time and I don't want to deal with a flood in that room.
explodingcat: Maybe the hot water gods will smile upon us.

And so on.

Tonight, the conversation went like this:
krasota: AW SHIT. TOM TOM TOM! TURN OFF THE WATER. CRAP! OUCH! OH, DAMN.
explodingcat: Wha? Huh?
krasota: The BASEMENT. SHUT OFF THE WATER SUPPLY!

And then I found the shut off for the hot water heater and turned it off. Mostly. And then I started hauling crap out of the laundry room while I desperately hunted for towels (most of them were in the washer spinning out at that moment). And then I found a bucket and propped it open.

I tripped on the relief/drain valve. Not a real hard trip or anything, I just bumped over it. And it snapped off.

Oh, and I now have a nasty rash on the bottoms of my legs from whatever sludge sluiced out all over me. Little red rashy dots of doom. I've wiped my legs with clean water, but still it burns.

Tonight's shower will be cold.

Comments

[crazypumpkin.livejournal.com]

That blows.
I hope your rash heals soon.

My parents hot water heater went one summer. Thankfully all it did was stop making hot water. Unfortunately, it was in the crawl space and to put in a new one we had to dig a nice big hole that it could actually fit in. That wasn't fun. (This was also the summer I 'discovered' I could carry 80lb bags of concrete because my mom couldn't and my dad couldn't carry them to himself and hand them down into the crawl space, so that job fell to me. Not fun either). Hope yours is easier to replace.

[eilonwy.livejournal.com]

Oh suck. :( I'm so sorry. What a hassle. And sucky rash. Pooo.

... I am starting to rethink this home-owning thing... (current plan is to probably buy one when I move from AZ and get a 'real' job.)

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Argh!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Eep! Hope you can get it replaced soon and your rash goes away quickly.

[short-line2.livejournal.com]

The replacement is the easy part. The rash it gave you is what I would worry about. Hope it clears up quickly.

*hugs*

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Oh, heck, I break out from everything. It was probably just mineral sediment. Really, it would be a miracle if I didn't break out.

[redzshadow.livejournal.com]

Ugh. :(

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Well, f*ckity f*ck!

I hope not too much stuff was damaged.

[seeliespright.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha save for the rashes. Our basement flooded so often at the old house...