Last week was a rough one. From a fallen tree to the truck’s transmission going bad, it has been one challenge after another. That is why we were pretty much exhausted by the end of it and almost lost $600.
My family and I ran some errands on Saturday that kept us out pretty much all afternoon. We did want to make sure that we made it back home in time for the town’s free firework show at the park. So, with just enough time, we left the kids in the car and ran in to the house to grab some lawn chairs and bottles of water.
We entered the house to be greeted by a loud alarm. The water treatment system had failed, causing the alarm and cutting off water to the house. We doused the alarm, grabbed our stuff and headed over the park. When we got back, we handed the kids bottles of water to brush their teeth, and sent everyone to bed. I called the repair company the next morning.
Here was the dilemma, live without water until Monday, or pay time and a half in labor to get it fixed. Worse, because the office was closed, the technician could not give me a rough estimate. I’m guessing it would have been somewhere in the $600 range. Still, I was so tired, I was ready to throw money around, so we wouldn’t have to live without water. Fortunately, my husband wasn’t prepared to let me do that.
Next option, figure out how to by-pass the system, so we could have water for flushing and washing, at least. We couldn’t actually drink the water in case it was contaminated, but fortunately, we had a nice stock of bottled water on hand. We could have also boiled and cooled water, but hey, I did mention it was a tough week, right?
On Monday, we took a sample of the water to be tested, in the wild hope that the water treatment system was no longer needed. For $20, results would be back Tuesday at the earliest. Another day without potable water. Ugh.
Still we stuck it through and were rewarded with the results that the water was safe to drink. No repair necessary; no $600 spent.