Emergency Water Heater Replacement

Last Friday, our nearly 10-year old water heater gave out on us. We found it in a puddle of its own fluids, and despite our attempts to coax it back to life by playing its favorite Smiths album, the water heater's pilot was not, in fact, a light that would never go out.

So here we are, in need of a replacement. We've contacted several local plumbing companies and the median price quote we've received is $1000. This price will include a new water heater as well as the labor to install it and removal of the old unit.

Backstory: 2014 was a challenging year for us. I (Shawn) have been out of work since December/2013 and I'm also legally blind (I'm including that to say, hey, there's no way I can replace this thing myself!). My wife Jen is chronically ill and her freelance writing work hasn't been super steady lately. We had to file bankruptcy towards the end of last year. And while we were hoping to get a fresh start in 2015, this isn't really  what we had in mind.

A little more about us: We host the Hyper Nonsense podcast together. Jen is a cohost of the Shatered Soulstone podcast. We run an everything-goes blogging site together (it's really mostly Jen's work) called No Market Collective. We live on the central coast of California in a mobile home park. We have four adorable pet cockatiels. And we're hoping to not have to keep taking cold showers.

Thank you for taking the time to check out our GoFundMe page and thanks again for your consideration!

(Note: Some people I've talked to have said that this price is high for a water heater replacement. I'm not really sure why. But the range of estimates we've received is $900 - $1500.)