So we´re back from our skiing trip. It was AWESOME! :)
Anyway, I just wanted to share a recent and rather BIG blessing that my sweetie and I experienced.
Shortly before we left for our skiing trip, our water heater broke. It happened around midnight when I wanted to brush my teeth. I realized that there was no warm running water and started on my frenzy to turn and twist the tap, press some buttons on the heater.... all in a futile effort to get some warm water.
When it was obvious that nothing seemed to be working, I resigned to having to wash my face with ice-cold water - exactly what I needed just before I hit the sheets!
Just before I went to bed, I heard the "tick tick tick" noise of something that sounded mysteriously suspicious. I went to investigate and realized that the water heater was leaking! And it wasn´t the tick (1 min) tick, but more like the quick and steady tick-tick-tick that threatened to flood our bathroom AND house if we didn´t find a way to contain the water leakage.
Needless to say, we had to dismantle the outer covering of the water heater and try to see if we could apply whatever emergency brakes to stop the water flow. Nothing worked. And we weren´t crazy enough to venture much further than the harmless pressing of buttons, since water and electricity were electrocution hazards.
We didn´t want to have to wake up at 15-min intervals to empty the bucket and at past midnight, we didn´t have the luxury of calling the good, old, reliable father-in-law for advice. Hence, we resorted to calling a 24-hour plumber. Bad choice.
The call was made at 1am and they came at 2.30am. That meant that my sweetie slept for an hour plus, while waking up at regular 15-min intervals. 2 guys came, took out some tools, loosened some stuff and the dripping stopped within 10 mins.
Guess how much they charged?
Close to 300€! That´s 275€ for 10 mins of work!
We were beyond shocked, but just paid and went back to sleep, while trying to shut out any thoughts of having WWIII with the landlords over this bill.
The next day my hubby called the landlord to explain the situation. They got some people over to fix the entire water system. That was the easy part.
Then came the difficult part. When my hubby called the landlord to tell her about the "emergency plumber", she barely allowed him to talk before cutting him off in a very rude and "stop bugging me" manner.
We decided then to drop the invoice at their house before leaving for our skiing holiday.
The holiday turned out to be a superb break from reality, but I kept having pangs of "war" when we came back home.
Got home and realized that the landlords tried to call us, both at home and at Stephan´s office. All this time, we kept praying and asking God to deliver us from this situation. I´m reading Psalms at the moment and they were all about "Sit at the right hand of God until He makes your enemies your footstool". I claimed these verses again and again in faith. Still, when the moment of truth came, it took all I had to say the prayer of "Dear God, I really don´t want to have any war with the landlords. Just let them say something like they are going to pay for everything. Nothing else. No questions, nothing".
Turned out? The landlord just wanted us to send them the original invoice since the one we gave them previously was not the official one.
PRAISE THE LORD! Woo hoo! :) Exactly, what we prayed!!! No questions, just that they will pay.
And guess what the plumbing company did in the meantime? They sent another invoice demanding us to pay 325€ instead of the original 275€, because of value-added tax. Stephan called them and demanded them to send the original invoice of 275€, while refusing to pay the extra 50€, because it is daylight robbery. 275€ itself is unheard of. They relented eventually.
Yup! Lesson learnt. Never ever call any emergency hotlines and prayer moves mountains!!!! Amen.
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