House Projects

One of the advantages of being stuck in the house all the time is that there are all kinds of home projects that are getting done and crossed off my list.

One that was not on my list (I don’t actually have a list, it’s just a bunch of jumbled up stuff in my head that I know needs doing) that came up recently had to do with our water heater. For the last couple months, our hot water has been turning a shade of green that at first was not noticeable – but in the last few weeks if you filled up our bathtub (which is white) it was a pretty unappetizing color.

The internet is a wonderful thing, because in the olden days I would have called a plumber, and the plumber would have come and told me that, since my hot water heater is over ten years old, it is time to replace it – and that would have run quite a bit of money. We have a nice big water heater, 75 gallons – a quick check of Home Depot shows they run over a thousand dollars. Plus installation.

But thanks to the internet, I learned about anode rods – my journey to anode rod education started with a video from this Old House, where Bob was talking about the “sacrificial rod” inside most modern water heaters. This led to a bunch more googling. So, something I never knew – inside water heaters, there’s this thing:

I’m pretty handy with things like this, but this I never knew. The anode rod’s job is to corrode away while attracting all the corrosive elements in your water, thus saving your water heater tank from corrosion. Because if your water tank corrodes, then it leaks, and then you have to replace it.

So, I ordered a replacement anode rod from Amazon, replaced it in about half an hour, and a week later the hot water is running clear and lovely. I wish I had taken a picture of what was left of the old anode rod I took out – it looked like one of those rock candy on a stick things we used to get at the drugstore counter.

Today’s project is figuring out how to change the skinny-head thing on my weed eater – it broke last year and I never got around to replacing it. I ordered all the parts, but got stuck on how to get the old one off. More googling to happen soon, I’m sure.

Also, there’s a huge pile of stuff in my home office that we are intending to sell on Facebook Marketplace (the only part of FB that I use) – I need to get started going through those and taking photos and posting them because the pile is disturbing my otherwise sort of orderly office space.

Featured photo above is unrelated – but it’s a Mccormick tractor that also needs help (but not mine, and not at my house). My grandfather used to have one just like this on his farm, and I learned to drive it when I was young. Makes me wonder if I would remember how to navigate the levers and pedals still.

Hope you are all staying healthy and well!