Little Hell on the Prairie

"I would have made a terrible pioneer."

That is the conclusion I come to every time we have to go without power due to a storm or whatever.  The reason I don't go camping with Keith any more than I do (which is very rarely) is because I do not like roughing it.  When I do go, my one rule is that the campground has to have a shower and real toilets.

In other words, I don't like going without water. So, guess what?

We still don't have water!!!!!!

It's a long story, but it's part of the perils of living in a 100 year old shotgun house that you bought from the family that had been there practically since the beginning who added the whole back end of the house on themselves some time around 1950.  Or 1970.  Or something a while ago.

The new water heater won't fit into the little closet, in part because the old one won't fit through the door to come out!  Yes, in this family there is something that is stuck in the closet.  Ironic, isn't it?  I have a theory that the closet was built around the hot water heater after it was installed.

Oh, yeah.  It's also not up to code, since there is not enough space around the water heater.  Since the family did it themselves, they never had it inspected, which is how they got away with that.  I'm still pondering how that did not get caught when the home inspection was done before we bought the place, especially since several other of their DIY jobs were identified and had to be corrected.

Keith is filling buckets of water at work so we can flush, and we're handling everything else with gallons of water from the store and no rinse cleaning products, which make my hair all stringy and itchy.

We're running through our friends now to find someone who can take the walls down for us, so the water heater can be installed.  We're trying to avoid the expense of a contractor for such a small job.  Hopefully, we'll have water by the weekend, next Monday at the latest.

In the meantime, I'm starting a club for reluctant, irate, and slightly incompetent pioneers.