Real Estate Corner: Old House and Old Pipes

When I was a kid, I remember each time it would get cold, my parents would open the doors to the cabinet below the sink, prop up a hairdryer and point it at the pipes. Those pipes froze all the time. All the other pipes in the house were fine, but something about those ones made them always become too cold and freeze up. So we’d stick the hairdryer on them for a bit and wait for them to thaw, which they always did, and then we’d move on with our lives.

One morning, I remember my mom following this same ritual: turn on the faucet only to find nothing coming out, prop up the hairdryer and wait. But I guess we didn’t act fast enough that time, or figure it out quick enough because while I was downstairs standing in my sister’s room to escape the hum of the hairdryer, we heard a big cracking noise and then suddenly water was coming out of everywhere: the ceiling, the walls. It was pouring everywhere in my sister’s room. All over the bed, clothes, posters on her wall, homework. Everything. Ruined.