Chapter 2: No Water, No Fittings, No Time

Click here for Chapter 1 in case you missed it.

With no time to waste, my dad and I went to find proper fittings in our small town hardware stores.  It was no real surprise that there were no brass compression fittings for pex pipe to be found at either store near here.  In the car and desperate, I called a Lowe's 1/2 an hour away and they were confident that they had what we needed.  Dinnertime was upon us, and there was no water to the house and I had a family to feed, so I called my hubby and while my dad and I drove home, he gathered everyone together so we could all go out to eat and go to the hardware store 1/2 an hour away.  We used scrap wood from around our yard to somewhat cover the huge hole and then prayed that no stray dogs or curious kids would venture over to it.  Then we were off.

We were sweaty, dirty from hair folicle to toe nail, tired, and hungry.  When we got to town, we pulled into a BBQ fast food place to wash up (sorta), use the restroom, and eat dinner.  The meal was satisfying, and it was relieving to have water to use again.

We ate quickly then got a move on.  My step-mom stayed in the car with the kids while my hubby, my dad, and I ventured to the plumbing department in Lowes.  We didn't see what we were looking for.  I paged someone who could help us and the store employee couldn't find what we were looking for either, but he was sure that the push fittings that he had for pex pipe would be all we needed.  Skeptical, but at the end of our rope, we spent $50 on push fittings and supplies to get the job done, and headed home.

The goal was now to just get the plumbing in place so we could turn the water back on to the house.

My dad powered through his fatigue and using our new supplies, he successfully T-ed off our water line and got water flowing back into our house, no leaks, and just in time as the last rays of sunshine graced the earth.

Waterline repaired.

We said our goodbyes to my dad, stepmom, and my nephew who came to play with cousins, and thanked the Lord we would get to take a shower that night and rest well, well, sorta well, as well as you can sleep knowing there is a giant hole in your front yard and your main water line is still exposed.  Plus, there was a lot of rain forcasted.  We put scrap wood over the hole and covered it with a tarp and put rocks along the edge to keep it from blowing away.

The recent rain created a personal pond between our yard and the neighbor's house.

The next day was Sunday, and while my family was at church, my dad left a message on my phone. I noticed it and could tell that something wasn't right.  I dialed the voicemail and listened:

"Hey Lani.  Um.  Hey, I got to talking to Darl (his plumber nieghbor), and he was saying... well... you might want to find out from the city... you see, he says pex pipe is not approved for burial underground.  Anyway, talk to you later.  Love you.  Bye."

Pex isn't approved for underground!  What the heck was my plumber doing when we built this house 5 years ago? Why didn't the building inspector catch that huge mistake?  Am I going to have to dig up the entire waterline now and get it fully replaced?  How much is that going to cost?   How long will we be without water?  Oh dear me.


To be continued...