My brother has pulled off another miracle for us.

Two of them.

We had plans to go into the city around noon to finally take care of the Costco/pharmacy mess, then a Christmas dinner with my husband’s family.

It was also the day my brother booked to come fix our van door and the hot water tank. Because of our plans, he came much earlier.  Amazingly, he started the day at 5:30 am, took three hours to prepare for everything he could think of (because, once here, there is no alternative if something is missing), then drove the hour and a half or more in freezing rain to our place.

Then he lugged a 150-200 pound door down the stairs into the new part basement to work on.

Our door had a broken latch and couldn’t stay closed.  It happened because of a loose hinge that caused the door to drop.  When closing it, the latch would hit the bar it was supposed to catch on to stay closed.  Eventually, it simply broke. I’ve been driving with a bungee cord hooked onto the window frame to keep the door closed, ever since.  Our garage had tried to find a used or salvaged part for me, because a new one would have cost an insane amount of money, but they were unable to find a salvageable part.

My brother managed it, salvaging the hinge pieces as well as the entire door.

Long story short, he ended up McGyvering the two together.  The frame of the replacement door now has the inside shell of our original door, plus the outside handle of the original door – with the key lock in it – got transferred from the original door, to the replacement door.

It took him something like 5 or 6 hours!!!

Then, as soon as he was done, we headed to the city, while he switched to working on the hot water tank.  It turns out he got the last two of those bands left, not just in North America, but the world!  They haven’t been made in decades, and they were still in the original box.  He wasn’t sure if replacing them would fix the problem, but he was going to try.

We got home less than half an hour ago, and found we have hot water!

Which means, in the morning, instead of sending hours heating water for several people to have baths, we can take 10 minute showers, and get on with out day.

I love my brother.

Update: I just got off the phone with my brother. Turns out only the bottom band needed to be replaced, but the new one was several inches too short. He had to gerry-rig it.  He also found the schematics for the replacement thermostat was wrong, which likely explains the breaker going.

We shall see how the hot water is, tomorrow.  In the end, it’s still a temporary fix until we can get a new tank.

The Re-farmer