The LPBC Sunday School Gazette: The Leak was Fixed, But the Mess Remained -- June 15, 2012

On Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m., a tech from Standard Heating and Cooling came to the house to inspect our air conditioning system as part of our annual contract. He checked the unit outside, and he went in the attic to check the unit up there. When he was done, he showed us his list of what he did and gave us some tips on keeping the system running smoothly. He was gone by 9:15 a.m.

At around 3 p.m., my wife and I went in the garage for some reason. She noticed water puddling on a barstool we stored out there. We looked up and saw water dripping from the exhaust pipe opening for the hot water heater. Though I am no "Mr. Fix-it", I knew that wasn't right. Then we saw two large wet spots on the drywall on the garage ceiling.

I climbed up in the attic to investigate. Eighteen square feet of plywood used for flooring were soaked. On the far side of that where there was no plywood, I saw the cause of the wet drywall. Water pooled between the joists on the drywall.

I traced the water back to the problem: an unscrewed joint in the PVC pipe that led from the A/C unit's condenser to outside. Instead of the water running through the pipe to drain harmlessly outside, it was dripping in the attic. The tech had unscrewed the joint to make sure it wasn't blocked. He failed to screw the joint back together. One small mistake caused a mess.

The fix was simple. I screwed the fitting on the joint and the problem was solved. But the mess wasn't. Do you know how hot an attic is in June in Alabama?

My wife tossed two old towels and a bucket up to me so I could sop up the water. I moved storage boxes (plastic, fortunately) that were sitting on the wet plywood. I used the towel to soak up water puddled on the drywall. It was wonderful soaking up water mixed with blown insulation. Really clean stuff. Not. I'd wring out the wet towels in the bucket and put the towel in the water to do it again.

By the time I had all the standing water gone, I was as soaked as my towels. Did I mention that the attic could honestly be listed as a sauna on an MDS?

While I battled the water, my wife called Standard, who got someone there within 25 minutes. He confirmed my fix was right and took pictures. He promised Standard would fix things, and we'll still use them in the future.

The whole ordeal was frustrating. But it was fixable. Our lesson this week is "Frustrating the Father". Perfect lesson title for Father's Day, right?

Through a look at our scripture passage of Malachi 2:17-3:12, we will see things the Jewish people did to frustrate God. But like our A/C leak problem, we'll also see how they can be fixed.

Join us at 9:50 a.m. on Sunday as we explore this fully. For those of you traveling this weekend, we pray for safe travels.

And as an appetizer for the Dads in the class, here's a video for you: