watch your step.

(where i almost meet my untimely death/broken neck at the bottom of my crawlspace)

this is the trap door at 1371. it's in the hallway to the bathroom, right around the corner from the living room. it's pretty huge, in case you can't tell.

and, in case you missed it, it was an arctic deep freeze here. temperatures of like negative 30 with windchill. what. the. icicles.

i came home from work on wed to take a shower. i was especially jazzed to wash my hair, because i had a date the next night and i wanted to have perfect, day-after-wash hair (girls, you know what i'm talking about). i turned the hot water in the tub... and nothing came out. weird. i turned it off, then back on. nothing. not even noise. i turned on the cold water, and it poured out. i turned and tried the sink. same thing: no hot, tons of cold. i went to the kitchen, and you guessed it: same thing.

long story short, i crawled into this lil' crawl space, covering every inch of the dirt ground and insulation covered bowels of my house, and guess what? no broken pipes, no drips, nothing awry. which in reality, was so very heart warming to me (yay, old house! you rock, even in the cold!) but it was a little disheartening, since i had no idea where my hot water was stuck.

and yes, the pilot light on the *brand new, six months old) water heater was lit. i forgot to mention earlier that i checked it, only about forty three times....

i worked from home the next day, with texts and fb messages galore of advice... i turned on all the hot water faucets, opened all my cabinets, and blasted the heat. i was basically sitting around drinking mai tais in my bikini all day, while the ground froze outside. it was luxurious... minus the lack of hot water/shower (post gym, i may add).

the only hiccup to the day was when i forgot that the door to the crawl space was propped open, and i turned the corner, blindly, and literally stepped my foot into the empty air where the floor would have been. luckily, i instinctually grabbed the door jamb and saved spacey gracey (me) from tumbling to the ground with a broken neck, lying next to the lit pilot light in my crawlspace. thank goodness for my cat-like relexes. or something like that.

ps don't worry, the hot water came on a few hours later, and the trapdoor has been shut ever since. whew.