Sorry for the absence....Part 3 + house woes

Once in the hospital, we immediately were lost since we normally come in through the front door. We asked a janitor where the atrium/lobby was located and he just stood there. He finally said "I don't know." Really? I mean it's the main part of the hospital. I ran ahead trying to find the correct path while R and my mother walked behind me. I finally found the elevators.

My dad had an episode that caused him to be O2 depleted and we found him back on a ventilator heading back to ICU....................fast forward 6 days. He is still in ICU but today they removed the ventilator and he is breathing on his own but has issues with inflammation of the lining of his lungs.

So that is where we are at, at the moment. But since this is a house blog we also must talk about the house and houses like people have parts that go bad and need replacing. Unfortunately our house is not immune to that malady.

The pressure assisted toilet at the Torry Road house decided to quit flushing right after my dad's operation. This toilet has been nothing but problems from the start. We installed it in the mid 90's and hoped that the pressure assist, the name Kohler, and the 600 bucks it cost would make it a toilet to remember.

Sadly it was the worst possible way to waste 600 bucks. I would have been better off putting it into a slot machine or buying lottery tickets. The toilet never flushed consistently and was an absolute nightmare to work on or change the toilet seat.

We installed a basic simple no frills model and it has worked flawlessly since it was installed. The only hiccup is the caulk that was used around the base of the old toilet has left a mark on the white tile floor. I used a new razor blade to scrap off the caulk but there is still some residue of caulk remaining. Solvent of some sort will probably do the trick but I just haven't had the time to try any on it.

But of course we couldn't just have the toilet go on the fritz. Oh no. When it rains it pours or in our case.....when we turned on the hot water all we got was cold water. Yup...that's right. The water heater was broken.

R and I have had discussions in the past about the tankless water heater. We already had a direct vent water heater so we would just need to adjust the size of the opening to accommodate the new configuration. But first we removed the direct vent water heater to get a better look at what we had to work with i.e. space, location etc.

This photo shows the old water heater gone but the old vent still in place with a towel keeping the 20 degree cold air from blowing in.
Here is the opening with the old vent removed.
While removing the old heater we realized that it had been in use for 22 years. Not too shabby considering that the average life span of a water heater is 10-15 years.

Off we went to Home Depot where we decided to buy the Rheem EcoSense model. This model will supple the needs of a three bath home. The Torry Road house is a 2 bath but one of the baths has a two person Jacuzzi brand tub that needs a lot of hot water to fill. Another added benefit of this model was the fact that it uses PVC pipe for both the intake and exhaust rather than the expensive double walled exhaust pipe.

Cost of water heater $1297.00.

We felt confident that we could hang the unit, install the PVC intake and exhaust pipes, and cement the remaining open area closed. We were iffy on the gas line and maze of valves and water lines.

But first things first. Let's hang this puppy and locate where the pipes need to be located.Well as you can see the opening is just tall enough but needs to be widened. Thankfully we have this little tool to make the job slightly easier. This pneumatic air hammer/chisel was worth it's weight in gold since we needed to go through a cement block wall plus brick on the outside.
More tomorrow. Oh boy...cliff hanger