We bought our first house when we lived in Oklahoma. We also had the house custom-built just for us. We picked our lot and floor plan. The builder had about five different floor plans they built in our neighborhood. We chose the one we liked best and made som modifications like adding a large walk-in pantry with custom shelves.
We watched the house get built from leveling the lot to the final finishing touches. During the construction phase, we drove to the lot nearly everyday to see the progress made by the builder. Allyn (2) called it “Pippi’s House.” The kids lived to go to the lot and visit their backyard.
We loved the house it was as nice as we dreamed it would be when we watched it getting built. One thing we loved about the house was a custom cabinet in the kitchen that had a roll out platform to hold the mixer. We also lived the custom pantry some shelves built 6, 9, 12, and 18 inches apart to allow for the different sizes of food we bought and to accommodate our five gallon buckets of food storage (flour, sugar, oatmeal, etc.).
The master bedroom was in the back corner of the house. It was the farthest from the garage which was where the water heater was stored. Unfortunately, when we tried to shower I the master shower, the water would never quite get hot. Even if we turned the temperature selector to all hot. When Annette and I showered, we would let the water run for three or four minutes to let the water warm up. But we never had “hot” water. This was especially tricky in the winter months (fortunately, winter is relatively short in Oklahoma).
We lived in the house from June 1999 to June 2005. The water was always lukewarm to cold depending on the outside temperature. We knew part of the issue was the “modern” plumbing fixture that had a scale protection regulator in it to prevent us from turning the temperature too hot. But we just lived with it.
In January 2005, we contacted a realtor to help us sell the house in preparation for our pending move to Texas. As we met with the realtor, one of the disclosures we shared with her was that the master bathroom shower did not get hot water.
The realtor offered to have her plumber come by to look at our plumbing because she thought listing no hot water for master shower would be detrimental to our efforts to get the best price for our house. She suggested maybe the plumber could add an inline water heater above the shower for minimal cost
The plumber came to visit and examined our plumbing. Then he turned up the temperature on the hot water heater. The builder had apparently set it to run at the lowest temperature possible when the hot water heater was installed. The plumber setting to a “normal” level and left.
A couple of hours later, we had hot water in the shower.
What a relief to know we could sell the house with guaranteed hot showers in the master bathroom.
But … we were sure disappointed to learn we had endured 6 years of cold showers because we never thought to check the temperature in the water heater!
.jpeg)