More Water Woes

We were very relieved to learn earlier this week that Superstorm Sandy had not damaged our little cottage. But when we saw a 10-day forecast that predicted below-freezing temps for this weekend, we realized we'd have to go down on Saturday and wrap the pipes with heat tape. Doug was NOT looking forward to going under the trailer to do the job, but he didn't have much choice.

I puttered around inside for awhile putting away some things that I had brought down.  When we went down last weekend for our first dinner and sleepover, we realized that we didn't have any dishes that would work for pasta, which was the planned menu. I had plates and small bowls but no pasta dishes. So Doug ate out of a serving dish, while I used one of the small cereal-sized bowls.  I felt kind of like Goldilocks looking for just the right serving of porridge.  This pic shows my bowl inside Doug's for perspective:

So this week I went to Goodwill and found a great set of six pasta bowls in three colors:

I was washing them in the kitchen when I heard expletives from outside.

It turned out that the pipes underneath the trailer were leaking, and Doug soon learned, after a trip to Lowes for some repair supplies, that the problem wasn't fixable--the entire length of copper pipe was riddled with pinholes.  The only way to make the leak stop was to shut off the water supply at the street, but Doug had no idea how to do that.

I ran up to the beach to see if Mike Costello, head of the Kitts Hummock Homeowners Association, was home.  We had never met him but knew where he lived.  I prayed that he would be home and assumed he would know what to do.

He was and he did.

We quickly learned about some wonderful people in our new part-time community.  Mike went to get  a man named Dick Rodgers, who takes care of the KH water supply, and Dick, accompanied by his wife Sue, walked right over with the "key" to shut everything off.  After the immediate emergency was over (the leaking pipe had been spraying water into our living room), we invited them inside to see what we had done with our renovations and to learn a little bit about them.

We then asked if they knew anyone who could install new pipes for us.  Dick smiled and said, "Yeah, me."  At that moment, he felt like our new best friend.

He and Doug went back outside to survey the job while Sue and I stayed inside, talking about the history of Kitts Hummock.

We left at about 4:30, knowing that the outdoor part of our plumbing is now in very capable hands.  And we had made some new friends--we now have names, phone numbers, and emails of three very kind people who came to our rescue when we were really desperate.