One Sucess, One Never Again

Saturday, I finished pulling all of the aluminum off of the old shed. Next, I had to find something to cut the framing up with. I borrowed a reciprocating saw from Ish's brother, but it didn't work very well.

So, I bought a grinder. I only bought one cutting blade, so I had to go back to the store soon after starting to buy more. I went to Lowes, but they didn't have anymore like the one I had bought Saturday. So, I went to Home Depot. All they had was one that was thicker and raised in the center. I had to track someone down who knew about grinders to find out if this one would work on my grinder. He said it would and the thicker one would last longer. Luckily I bought three of them because it took all three to get it all cut up.

Here's the pile I then had to drag to the side of the road. Hopefully they'll pick it up pretty quick. I worry about neighborhood kids running into it and getting cut.
During breaks from cutting down the shed, I was working on fixing my hot water heater. It hasn't been working right for over a year. My tester said it was the thermostat that was bad. While replacing the thermostat, I noticed water leaking from somewhere. I called my Dad, and he said it had to be coming from around the element. He said the seal had probably gotten cracked while I was replacing the thermostat. So that meant, I would have to replace the element. I called Dad to ask him which valve shut off the water coming into the hot water heater. I shut it off, and turned on the hot water. I let it run until it wasn't hot anymore. When I got back from Lowes, I hooked up the water hose and opened the drain valve. Nothing happened. I fiddled with it some more and finally got water to come out of the hose. It kept draining and draining. Then I realized that the valve I shut off wasn't the incoming water after all. When I turned off the right valve, the water stopped coming out of the hose. So, I thought it was empty. I couldn't get the element lose, so I called Micah to come help me. When he loosened the element, water started shooting out. He couldn't get the element back in, so we had to stand there with a bucket until the water stopped coming out. Luckily it was the top element and not the bottom, but it was still alot of water. I think we emptied the bucket 3 or 4 times and used about a dozen towels to soak up the water on the floor. Here's a picture of the old thermostat and element. We have alot of sediments in our water.
Here's a picture of the new ones. That dark area at the bottom is very wet insulation. I will NEVER attempt to work on a hot water heater again. If it starts acting up again, I'll call the plumber and have a new one installed. Apparently the drain is clogged because it didn't drain at all. I'm just glad I couldn't get the element loose. I wouldn't have been able to get the bucket or towels. I would've had to just let it flood the whole room. It seems to be working for now. I just have orange water from stirring up the sediments in the tank. I've got to take a shower before I go to bed because I've been working outside most of the day, and I'm all stinky. It'll be late before I get to bed. I need tomorrow off to recoup from all I've done today.