The current state of the bathroom.

When George went to turn on the hot water heater Friday morning, he discovered that the flooring underneath the heater was wet. Not good. I went on my merry way to work, hoping it was just a little leak. But during the course of the evening, I received more and more alarming text messages from him. This one pretty much said it all: “Found the source of the leak. Tell you about it when you get home.” He was preparing me for the worst.

And I came home to less than ideal news. George found the source of the leak. It was our hot water heater, as we had feared. The most expensive thing in the Airstream to replace. The heater runs on both electricity and gas so it isn’t as cheap as standard hot water heaters. He also had to tear up our bathroom floor because water had seeped under the floorboards and managed to warp the floor.

If something like this had happened two years ago, I would have flipped out. But living in the Airstream has some advantages. It’s allowed me to save enough for an emergency fund and replacing our floor won’t be nearly as expensive as replacing a floor in a home. Our bathroom is tiny. The hot water heater set us back about $600 bucks and I’m bummed about it, but it isn’t nearly as tragic as it could be. The hot water heater was original and we got almost a year of use out of it before it kicked the bucket.

We’ll have hot water again soon and we’ll make the money back. Living in the Airstream and having this adventure has taught me to be more resourceful and resilient than I’ve ever been. We’re lucky to have caught the leak fairly early and we’re lucky to have a home.

love and resilience,
melanie