frozen

I experienced frozen pipes for the first time this week.  No water.  Washing up using a pot which I heated up on our stove.  All in all, not much fun.  I have truly come to appreciate the modern conveniences which I took for granted until this winter.  Things such as water and electricity and the internet.

How did we deal with our frozen pipes? you may ask.  Well, first Mr. A got our space heater and put it near the pipes in our basement that connect to the outside and we jacked up the thermostat.  It may have worked, but a couple of hours later and we still didn't have water.  Problem was we aren't professionals and the last thing we wanted was for the pipes to burst, because that's about ten times worse than frozen pipes.

So I used my veto and called a plumber.  I had to call 4 places until I found someone who could come quickly (ie. the same night).  It seems there were a lot of other frozen and burst pipe issues elsewhere in the city.  I felt a little bit better knowing weren't the only ones who didn't think to leave our faucets on in this frigid weather!

Anyhow, the plumber, bless his heart, came just before 9pm.  He charged us a boatload but he got our water back in about 5-10minutes.  Golden.  I was so happy.  Turns out Mr. A was pointing the heater in the right place, but it might have taken a full day to thaw the pipe out that way.

For the next two days, we left the water on (a very small amount) all day and night in basement sink to avoid another run in with frozen pipes and we've continued to keep the space heater on down there.

Here's to modern plumbing and running water. :)