troubled waters

when we moved to ten miles south of common sense we knew they had bad water. a softener would be required. no big deal. but we didn't know we would have a system that would eventually look as if the entire village got it's water supply from 69791 roy drive. so, a few months ago i started to notice a few iron spots on our clothes. then the water started to smell. we had a new fandangled anode rod put in the water heater as they sometimes react with certain kinds of water and produce a rotten egg smell. although the water heater was free. this particular removal was not. we then bleached the system. and all was well with the world. until a strong smell of metal was coming from our water. so, out came the plumber a few weeks later. to remove the new anode rod we just paid him to install a few short weeks earlier. we continued to have water that smelled. we continued to get iron spots on our clothes. we continued to try every product on the market to prevent the iron stains. nothing worked. and i continued to be frustrated by the fact i can't even do laundry without having an issue. it's laundry. it shouldn't be that difficult. oh yeah. and during all of this i asked our plumber about a whole house filter. a few people in our neighborhood have one and it seems to filter out the iron. as he was taking out the anode rod he noticed that we already have a whole house filter. well, wouldn't that have been nice to know. you know, so we could have changed the filter. i need not tell you that after a year and a half that the filter that was in there it looked somewhat like an artifact. from the titanic. hoping that would do the trick we installed a new filter. but that didn't work. of course. so, we get an iron filter installed. and this should be a separate entry in itself. i was torn between culligan and our plumber. i have had several issues with culligan. but our plumber was 40 dollars more in price. not a huge difference. after culligan did not return my phone calls and several other oddities i decided to go with our plumber. the minute he came to the door i felt i made the wrong decision. after they got the unit downstairs the plumber made the comment about not having the right parts. but he thought he could make something work. that statement left me warm and fuzzy. three and a half hours later and 1,833 trips up and down the stairs out to his van it was installed. when i went downstairs with him to check it out he couldn't tell me much about the system. impressive. but i did notice a leak. coming from the supply line into the holding tank. 1,834 trips later he left. which leads to this morning at 2:11 am. i was awoken by the most god awful sound. it was coming from underneath our bathroom. in the basement. hellfire. i quickly made it downstairs expecting to find a basement full of water. well, the entire basement was not full of water. but the iron filter was regenerating. and there was water seeping out of the holding tank. long enough to have a wet floor. and saturated studs of the wall behind it. now my husband is up. i got a fan out. the system is still regenerating. it is so loud you need hearing protection. did i mention it was 2:11 am? now, i am up. my husband is up. my daughter is up. and my son is up. thankfully, everyone fell back asleep. accept for me. and eight o'clock cannot get here fast enough. i will try and be gentle with the poor person that answers the phone at the plumber.