For the past month and a half, our leaky bathroom sink faucet has become worse. I've been meaning to replace it, but I keep putting it off. So one day I decided to do a test to see exactly how much water our leaky faucet was wasting. I let the water run into a measuring cup for one minute, noted the amount and did some multiplication. I figured it to be leaking 96 gallons a day. That's a lot of freakin water. So my temporary fix was to wedge a small box underneath the hot water knob, which stopped it from dripping.

Two days later, me and Colleen came home to discover that we had no running water. Due to the sub-zero temps, I suspected that our pipes might have frozen. We went to bed, hoping that the problem would correct itself. It did not. The next morning we still had no water. I broke down and called a plumber.

When the plumber arrived, he went down in the crawl space to check things out. Apparently, the two access points to the crawlspace were extremely uninsulated and drafty, and there were pipes running right along those areas. So he suspected that the pipes had frozen at one of the two areas. He prepped his blow torch and started heating up the pipe. It didn't take very long before the water started running again.

Even though the water was running again, the plumber said that if we didn't insulate those drafty areas immediately, it would freeze again. So we patched up the two openings using some old torn up insulation and carpet scraps. Good enough for now, but I'd probably install something more permanent once it got warmer out and I actually felt like working outside.

The plumber said that one thing we could do to avoid pipe freeze was to leave a faucet drip to keep water running through the pipe. This IS what were doing, just not intentionally. Our leaky faucet was a blessing in disguise. The plumber took his $125 and left. But since the crawlspace drafts were now insulated, we continued to wedge to box under the bathroom faucet knob to eliminate the drip. All was good, until the next streak of sub-zero weather.

I awoke on a Friday several weeks later to, once again, have no running water. I was pissed. I didn't want to call a plumber again, so I decided to venture into the crawlspace on my own. I was determined to thaw these pipes.

In front of the main entry point was a layer of solid ice, followed by a foot of snow, followed by a pile of gravel which was conveniently frozen together. I hacked away at this for a good 5 or 10 minutes. Then I had to remove the piece of plywood that was wedged under the siding, as well as the insulating carpet scrap.

With flashlight and hair dryer in hand, I descended into the depths of the unknown. I crawled on my stomach through the uneven bed of dirt and clay. Dead spiders suspended from webs brushed against my head. Scraps of wood, disconnected wiring and old tarps lie scattered about. It was a jungle down there. I made way to the other side of the house where the water came in from the city. This is where the plumber thawed the pipes last time. Luckily there was an outlet directly overhead, so I plugged in the hair dryer and went to town. I heated up the pipe for no more than 2 minutes before the water started running again. I wrapped another carpet scrap around the problem pipe and secured it using some lengths old wiring that I found laying around down there.

I was very muddy after being down there, but it was very satisfying to fix it on my own. I feel closer with the house now that I've been down there and I eventually plan to do a permanent fix to all the issues down there. As for the leaky faucet, I'm letting it leak until spring comes.