Dobleve

Recently our electric hot water heater began leaking and we needed a plumber.  We’ve found an interesting thing about appointments, it seems that everyone expects you to be home when they arrive, be it the delivery man, plumber or neighbor, so no one makes actual appointments, they just say they’ll be there at your house.  Mañana.  Or maybe mañana mañana if something comes up.

When Timoteo arrived, he quickly found the problem and how to fix it, in what seems to be the traditional Spanish way of repair – without buying any new parts.  Unfortunately Timoteo is about 5′ 4” tall and our water heater is mounted sideways at the ceiling level, about 10′ off the ground.  We don’t own a ladder and Timoteo arrived on a scooter.  Again no problem, we begin to search the house for something else.  Chairs get us about 2′, but really we need more like 4-5′.  To my amazement, Timoteo settled on a small coffee table and wooden chair, stacked on top of each other.  The table is slightly smaller in one dimension than the chair, so to stand a chair on it you have to turn the chair just a bit so all four legs just make it.

Now the fun begins, since the table+chair combo is nearly as tall as Timoteo himself; I help him get to the top so he is standing on the chair.  The repair involved removing, fixing and replacing a pipe connector and then bending a pipe.  Timoteo accomplished all this, including using a long metal pry-bar to bend the pipe, perched on the table+chair and squeezed against the ceiling, with me all the while acting as the table+chair holder and safety catcher on the ground, occasionally swapping tools with him too.  If only I had a video of this….

I’m glad we know Timoteo, he’s helped us with other problems we’ve had in the house with a smile and a clever fix.