Baa Baa Knit Stitch

We had planned a relaxing 4 day trip to the condo in Highlands after Christmas as a treat to ourselves for surviving the holidays and the year in general. The contractor had assured me that at least one bathroom was in full working order and the unit was habitable, even if all the remodeling wasn’t finished.

So, we packed up, put Penny in the car, and headed north on the day after Christmas.  As usual, we stopped in Clayton to stock up on groceries before we headed up the mountain.

Got there to discover that there were no shower curtains in the bathrooms or coverings on the windows. We dug around and found the shower curtains, but no rods… so Richard was off to the local hardware store to get a shower curtain rod and some masking tape for us to put paper over the windows (I really didn’t feel like sharing all aspects of my life with my fellow condo dwellers).

While he was gone, there was a knock on the door. The sweet lady from the condo right below us was there to tell me that there was a water leak.

Now, we had replaced the old water heater with a new, larger, more energy efficient unit.  It had been rather hurriedly installed right before Christmas.  She suspected that was the culprit and figured it was a “one time thing” while they were doing the installation, even though she had cut the water off to our unit (the shut off is right by her condo). I apologized profusely; assured her we’d repair the damage, and turned the water back on.

Richard returned, and we went on about our business of getting the TV and internet working (evidently with the new wiring we can have one or the other, but not both, so we were using our tried and true workaround), when the pounding started on the door.

“The water is leaking again!!!”

Groan

We cut the water off again and pinpointed the leak to a weld in the water heater installation.

At that point, it was pretty obvious we weren’t going to be staying there.  Thank goodness the lodge we generally stayed in had a room for the night (they’re very pet friendly and welcoming of Penny).  We gathered essentials and headed there – after talking to the contractor (on vacation herself) who was mortified over the entire situation and promising that it would be remedied.

We figured the water could be fixed the next morning, later in the day, or maybe not till the first of the week.  Our best move was to cut our vacation short and just come home.

The next morning, I gave the perishables we’d bought that wouldn’t make the trip to Atlanta to the downstairs neighbor who had been inconvenienced.  She has been very gracious about the whole thing, so I’m anxious to get her condo back to normal as soon as we can.  We loaded the car, then took our time getting home.

Hoping that we have better luck on our next trip. In the meantime, maybe we can get some stuff done around the house.