Thursday, January 23, 2025

Treading (Frozen) Water

No real news to report. Hick and Old Buddy could not unfreeze the frozen water line at the Beauty Shop on Wednesday. Hick's major concern is that the pipe might have broken underground. He said the water tried to run through the pipes after the attempted thawing, but that it could not. He also said that if the city pipe supplying the house broke, it would be OUR responsibility to repair it. He's going to try working on it again Thursday. The fact that temps were in single digits for three days and nights makes me think Hick was overly optimistic in getting things thawed in one day with 30s as the high.

Anyhoo... the good news is that there were no signs of any further leaks in the main house. Hick sent a text to Realtor, informing her that the water in the Beauty Shop was frozen, and that he was working on getting it fixed. Also that he had cleared the sidewalk and steps of ice, so the entrance to both houses was accessible. She sent back a text thanking Hick for his efforts.

Meanwhile, our current insurance company says their accomplice partnering agency that insures houses under renovation will not cover Bargain House because it needs updated electrical service. Um. That is what people do to houses that need renovation! Hick is planning to do that as one of his first projects. This is a bit irritating. We are shopping other insurance companies.

Seems that our flipping status is currently 0 steps forward and 3 steps back. I'm not worried. Hick is on the case!

10 comments:

  1. That is crazy about the insurance company not insuring the house.
    Nope. That is not long enough and high enough temp to thaw a pipe.

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    1. Yes, we are going with another insurance company. Sad to do that after 35 years with our current agent, but he has to abide by his company's guidelines.

      Hick wasn't relying solely on the daytime temperature for the thaw. He used a propane heater on the line. I think the ground is going to take a while to thaw out, and it's a bigger factor than the heater. So much frozen dirt around that pipe, compared to a heater warming up a small section and waiting for conduction to warm the rest of the pipe and melt the ice.

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  2. You are making me nostalgic for living in Missouri, wait, no you are not!! Water and sewer lines were the bane of HeWho's exitance. I am happy to be nestled on the side of the mountain.

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    1. Funny how we've never had a problem over 27 years in the mansion that Hick built, but only in town on city water for this property and our long-ago duplex that we rented out. In two separate towns.

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    2. Maybe Hick might try that pipe wrap that is heated. The RVs in our park that used it never had frozen pipes no matter how cold it got.

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    3. The problem is that Hick would have to dig up the front yard and wrap the city pipe with it. The inside pipes, and that entering the house, were not where the freeze occurred. He figured that out after two days of trying to remedy the situation.

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  3. I hate insurance companies, you pay the premiums and get very little for your troubles should you ever need to make a claim. They drag out umpteen pages of print so fine they need to run it under a microscope to discover "your policy doesn't cover that".
    Except my health insurance which is pretty damn good!

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    1. I agree. Insurance is a gamble. Hick says we would do better paying that premium money into an account to use in case we need repairs for damage. We could have built our house twice over for the money we've paid in insurance over the years.

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  4. I'm reminded of a song from one of my favorite childhood cartoons: Mighty Mouse is on his way! He will come to save the day! And he always did, as I'm sure Hick will in time.

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    1. Hick is on the case! Unfortunately, his superpowers do not include control of the weather.

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