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Mountain Man Mondays; What Do You Mean There’s No Hot Water Heater?

Two years ago, we discovered this ranch house, a dilapidated dwelling on a beautiful piece of land.  We decided we could bring it back to life and enjoy warmer winter weather at the same time.  Only problem, I was naive and didn’t realize just how run down it was nor did I appreciate how much I enjoy my creature comforts.

Flash back to our first trip.  We had had a most difficult drive and all I wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to bed.  I told Mountain Man and he said, “You’ll have to wait until I get the fire going to heat the water.”

“What do you mean get the fire going?  What about the hot water heater?”

“There isn’t any.”

That was my first sign this was going to be quite an experience.

As I waited for the water to heat , I went into the bathroom.  Oh, it was scary.  There was an old indoor carpet rug on the floor that was soggy with moisture and the floor sloped about 3 feet down from the bedroom.  I hoped I wasn’t going to fall through. 

The linen closet was filled with mouse droppings and there were holes in the ceiling.

 

 

The bath was okay.  Not exactly the shower from Psycho.  I could cope.  A little elbow grease and it would be fine.

My desire to be clean over rode my fear of my surroundings so I hopped in and waited for the water and waited and waited.

Finally, the shower started only it was a shower of rocks.  Bam, small pebbles pelted me.

“Help!” I screamed for Mountain Man.  “There’s rocks coming out of the shower head!”

“I guess there’s a problem.”  Nothing like stating the obvious to a tired, irate woman.

“I CAN’T live without hot water.” There I was wrapped up in a towel, freezing and covered in pebbles glaring at my Mountain Man as if it were all his fault.

“Don’t worry, I’ll fix it.”

And he did but it took days.  Mineral deposits had calcified throughout the water line.  We had brought water from Vermont for drinking purposes but not nearly enough water for showers.  Good thing Mountain Man prefers the natural smelling woman.  I reeked and I was fuming.

Finally, the shower worked but every time I turned on the water, the house filled with sewer smell.  EWWW!

Mountain Man discovered the plumbing wasn’t vented properly so anytime the water ran, the smell from the septic tank came back into the house.

I finally got to the point where I’d tell Mountain Man to start the fire, then I’d open all the windows (never mind it was 20 outside and ice storming), run into the shower and stay long enough to get clean. 

When we decided we were going to come back here this winter together, we first had decided to build a nice, clean small dwelling in the field where I could stay while Mountain Man worked on the old ranch.  Sadly, economics prevented us from following through.  Then, Mountain Man was going to fix the ranch and I’d stay in Vermont but we didn’t want to be apart that long.  I gritted my teeth and decided I could cope.

“Please, please, is there anything you can do about the bathroom?”

“That will be my first project.”  And it was.

First, he had to frame the space and put in the walls.  The old bathroom will be ripped out and will become part of a new master bedroom suite.

Next came installing the bathtub and the toilet.  After that, he put in new drainage lines that actually went into the septic tank.

He built the cabinets from ash wood on Red Pine Mountain.

 

We purchased the vanity top and sink together but it didn’t fit the opening but no worry, Mountain Man just power planed  the sink to fit.

Now I have a beautiful clean bathroom complete with hot water and no sewer smell.

Love means never having rocks fall on you in the shower.

Thank you Mountain Man!