Ok 2 pages long.
We found somebody to replace the heater. DH got a name from a coworker of his. He's coming tomorrow afternoon with a new heater.
Sadly it looks like no vacation this yr as it will be in the neighborhood of $700. Which actually isn't that bad considering Dh actually did ask the kid at Lowe's how much to install. That was like $250. So not that much more and with luck I can be spik and span for church on Sun.
As for the outdoor water heater, its not unusual for my area, just depends on the size of the house. No basements here because the water table is too high and we live in a small 1 story home. Can't put in the attic as its not big enough and who wants it up there anyway. We bought the house this way and there is no changing it. Besides, it sits so close to both the bathroom and the kitchen there is seriously NO waiting for hot water. 2 seconds tops. Hence we know its dead or dying, and we don't fell like making a repair only to replace a few yrs later. Just rip it out and start over.
And we do own the house. If we hadn't we would just have called the landlord. The last house we had was a rental and out water heater was inside the laundry room which sat between the hallway and the bathroom. That was odder to me than this 1 being outside.
We've been told to shut off the circuit breaker for tomorrow so he can work safely and that's np at all. Our box also sits outside on the opposite side of the house. I'm just happy our laundry room sits on the inside because in this neighborhood when the houses were built they put all the laundry attachments on the outside as well. We had 1 neighbor who finally got around to enclosing their laundry machines just last yr.
So this is just a capper on what has so far been a lousy week. Not getting any better.