A couple of days ago I noticed a section of the carpet near the kitchen was wet. I figured the kids spilled some water so I got some rags and soaked it up. The next day, the same spot was wet again.
Uh, oh. What are the odds of the kids spilling the same amount of water in the same spot on the carpet two days in a row?
I couldn’t find a trail of water leading from the refrigerator, which was nearby, or from anywhere else. The source of water was apparently coming from underneath the floor, which is built on a slab. I just couldn’t figure it out.
A burst pipe?
A newly sprung well?
Is this really happening?
I called our Home Warranty to initiate a work order for a plumber to come out. Turns out, the water was coming from the refrigerator, which has a water dispenser, with water supplied through a small, white tubing the width of a pencil, which had sprung a leak from a teeny tiny hole the size of a pin prick. See?
Mike the Plumber replaced the tubing, but besides finding its way underneath the carpet some five feet away, the water also made quite a mess behind the refrigerator.
Actually, the mess was because — full disclosure here — I haven’t cleaned behind the fridge since we’ve lived here.
Does anyone actually clean out behind their fridge on a regular basis? I know you’re supposed to… And I must say, I did think about it once, just a couple of weeks ago. Then when the carpet was wet I thought I’d pull out the fridge to see what I could find, but I couldn’t budge it.
Suffice to say, it’s clean back there now. So there’s that. And we were lucky the water didn’t damage the floor or surrounding walls.
Cost of repair: $70
– which is how much we pay for a service call through the Home Warranty. I asked Mike the Plumber how much the repair would have cost me straight out-of-pocket, and he estimated about $100 for parts and labor.
At least we’re getting use out of the Home Warranty, a necessary evil (in my humble opinion).
Heat Pump Maintenance
The same day that Mike the Plumber paid his call coincided with a routine check-up from Steve the Heating and Cooling Man. We paid $160 last year (and the year before that) for a maintenance program with these guys who then come out twice a year to check on the heat pump unit and its indoor air handler. They were instrumental a couple of years ago in helping us get our Home Warranty to replace our indoor air handler instead of repairing it again and again and nickel and diming us to death with the $70 service calls. Our ancient heat pump is the reason we keep our Home Warranty.
(An air handler, for you future home owners, is the electric unit inside your house that kicks on when the temperature drops too low — say, below 30 degrees Fahrenheit — for the heat pump to do its job properly. It’s the main source of a high heating bill during the winter months.)
So the maintenance was already paid for, but Steve recommended a “drain pan treatment” which is apparently a routine addition to an air handler but one we had not gotten since they installed the new air handler almost two years ago. I don’t know why. And right now I couldn’t even tell you what the “drain pan treatment” is for, even though Steve explained it to me quite sufficiently, as best as I can recall. My head is just pulled in so many directions right now what with trying to get this house ready to put up for sale that no sooner do I have one thought than two more are pushed right out so you better get them while they’re hot.
One drain pan treatment: $35
Total Budget Busters (in this post, anyway): $105
*****
By the way — have you been keeping track? A home warranty costs about $500 each year. We pay an additional $160 each year for heat pump maintenance. Just for the record, if we were staying in this house indefinitely, I would never in a million years throw that kind of money away on what is essentially insurance for routine home repair. I would instead put that $660 (and more) aside each year and then pay cash to replace a heat pump in ill-repair, or whatever home appliance happens to go out first.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
The last time I cleaned behind mine was in December of 2007. I remember it well. My daughter and SIL were coming home for a visit and we had just found out we were going to be grandparents!! DH said I had not asked him what he wanted. I thought huh? You mean boy or girl? I didn’t care. Okay DH what do you want? He says, “I hope it’s a girl”. I thought for sure after 3 daughters and no sons he would want a grandson, but no….. he got his wish!
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jolyn Reply:
April 26th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Those are some beautiful photos of a beautiful subject!
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