As a stay-at-home mom running a small business from my living room, every minute and every dollar matters. That’s why I started to get concerned when our hot water started acting funny.

My morning showers were taking forever to warm up, and even when they did, the hot water wouldn’t last long enough to rinse my conditioner out. Still, I brushed it off—just another oddity in an older house, right?

Then one day, while scrolling through TikTok during a rare moment of peace, I watched a video that made my stomach turn. A plumber was pulling globs of gray, sludgy buildup out of a water heater tank that had just been replaced.

He explained that if you live in an area with hard water—and don’t regularly flush your tank—you could be losing a huge amount of your tank’s capacity to sediment buildup. That mess could also be affecting your water quality. I was horrified.

A quick Google search confirmed my worst fears. My neighborhood in San Diego has hard water. Really hard water.

Suddenly, all those lukewarm showers and short bursts of heat made sense. The thought that my family might be washing in the same kind of sludge I saw in that video was enough to kick me into action.

I called the first plumber I found with decent reviews. They scheduled an appointment, but on the day of, no one showed up. When I called to ask what happened, they had no record of my booking.

Frustrated, I moved on to the next name on the list. That call went south even faster—they immediately tried to upsell me on a brand-new water heater without even diagnosing the problem. I wasn’t ready to drop that kind of money, especially when I wasn’t even sure a replacement was necessary.

The third company finally agreed to flush my tank, but their earliest available appointment was a month out. I was so desperate I said yes, and for the next thirty days, we made do with temperamental hot water and the growing worry of what we might be bathing in.

When they finally arrived and flushed the tank, the results were instant. Hot water was back, and it lasted. The whole experience felt like a stressful, unnecessary rollercoaster.

It wasn’t until a conversation with a friend weeks later that I learned about San Diego plumbers, California Plumbing. She raved about how quickly they responded, how professional the technicians were, and how fair their pricing turned out to be. She had used them for an emergency drain issue and had nothing but good things to say. I couldn’t help but feel a little envious—her plumbing fix was smooth and efficient, while mine had been a frustrating circus.

If I had just called California Plumbing from the beginning, I would have avoided so much stress—not to mention the risk of damaging a perfectly good water heater. Their team is known throughout San Diego and Chula Vista for their prompt service, excellent communication, and no-nonsense approach to plumbing repairs. They show up when they say they will, do what they say they’ll do, and get it done right the first time.

If you’re dealing with suspicious water temperature drops or haven’t had your tank flushed in a while, don’t make the same mistakes I did. Skip the runaround and call California Plumbing. Trust me—your nerves, your schedule, and your shower will thank you.

California Plumbing

+16197873443

Today, we’re going to discuss a rather stressful and frustrating experience I’ve been going through over the past few months, in part because I want to spread a message of caution and because I just need to vent! For those new to living in southern California, it rarely rains more than a few times a year, but on those rare years where there are multiple storms over the course of a month, it can cause a lot of damage.

It all started on a weekday just after my husband left for work. I was finishing up some emails and getting ready to cook breakfast when I saw what looked like a small lake forming in our backyard.

Believing that my husband had just left the hose running, I went outside to check out what was going on. The hose was lying, off and unused, in its usual spot. The water was coming from the sprinklers, and our previously well-manicured lawn was now turning into a muddy marshland.

Panicking, I called my husband and asked how to turn the sprinklers off. The panic worsened after he paused and replied that he didn’t know how since our gardener had just installed a new sprinkler control system. After a flurry of unanswered calls to our landscaper, I managed to find the control unit and hit the ‘off’ button just in time for the muddy slurry to begin trickling into our pool.

Once I was finally able to reach our gardener, I demanded he come and survey the damage caused by the new sprinkler system. He came over later that week, fiddled with the control system, and then delivered the bad news: it wasn’t the sprinklers; it was the drainage system.

He went on to tell us that wet winters cause a lot of loose material, like dirt and dead plant matter, tended to be sucked into the drain pipes, which could cause blockages somewhere along the line. He didn’t have the tools or the know-how to fix the problem, so we’d be best served by calling up a plumber.

So began the months-long process of finding a plumbing company that would show up and actually perform the work we were paying them for. We cycled through nearly half a dozen plumbers after each one, in turn, failed to come by for the scheduled appointment or came without the proper tools to clear our yard’s drain pipes.

It became very apparent during this process that a simple Google search of ‘drain cleaning near me‘ is not enough to find a reputable and conscientious plumbing company. We should have researched the best-reviewed company in our area, which just so happens to be California Plumbing out of Chula Vista.

Their reviews speak to the professionalism and efficacy of their plumbers, which would have made the process much smoother for us and saved us a ton of money and time repairing the damage caused by our not being able to use our sprinkler system. They also have a reputation for quick and easy services, taking care of problems in weeks rather than months, which could have solved the headaches we got from working with other companies in the area.

So, let this post be a warning to all of you: despite living in sunny southern California, you are not exempt from basic house maintenance like ensuring your drains are clean! If you are experiencing a clogged or slow draining system, we highly recommend you give California Plumbing a call:

California Plumbing

+16197873443

Being a Mother is like being on lifeguard duty 24/7. Seriously, especially when they are young—big enough to crawl or run around, but not wise enough to know the difference between safety and danger.

As Moms, we generally worry about our kids no matter how old or wise they get. With more information than ever at our fingertips, the average person is more aware and informed about the things we buy and use. For instance, talc products used to be household staples for parents with newborns. Most of us would not think twice about sprinkling some during a diaper change to keep our babies fresh and free of rashes. However, the Johnson & Johnson lawsuit has led one of the company’s subsidiaries to file for bankruptcy, “proposing to pay $8.9 billion to settle more than 38,000 lawsuits, and prevent new cases from coming forward in the future.” 

Needless to say, the thought of unknowingly exposing your children at any age to toxic substances is scary enough to drive parents crazy. Who would have thought that a talc product would be linked to asbestos speculation? I know I wasn’t the only Mom who was recounting all past diaper changes with horror and fear that my own children held similar fates to those who made claims in the lawsuit.

Anything can happen in the blink of an eye, and as parents, it’s our responsibility to be careful and keep our children safe. Just the other day, my youngest kiddo managed to climb atop the counter and almost knock over everything, including glass cups and ceramic plates.

Kids can clog up anything, including the toilet and sink. Because I have dangerously curious children, I am wary of having any strong cleaning agents around the house. When I do have a clog, I call California Plumbing and let the pros handle it. Be aware of the hazards of drain cleaners and consult with a professional whenever you can. I also advise against drain cleaners in general, as they can cause damage to your pipes, leaving corrosion, without thoroughly cleaning the entire clog.

Children are often unaware of what they get themselves into. I guess you could say the same about adults. I have a friend who tried to DIY unclog their pipes with a snake and ended up getting the snake stuck in the drain because they did not know how to maneuver the device. Ironically, they had hired a professional plumber at the end of the day to remove both the clog and the snake. And guess who fixed it? A Chula Vista Plumber I recommended.

They have a fix for just about every plumbing issue you can think of. Even if you have clunky tree branches clogging your drains, they can remove almost any clog. Hydro jetting is a powerful plumbing solution that blasts water pressure through the pipes, removing debris with high PSI water alone, and no chemicals. The hydro jetting machine must be handled by a trained expert. If you have a plumbing issue, give California Plumbing a call today!

California Plumbing
455 Willowcrest Way, Chula Vista, CA 91910

Here I am, sitting at my computer desk, trying to write, while my children are screaming at each other for “stealing” clothes from each other’s closets. 

I don’t regret having children, but sometimes I wish I had given birth to them with more years in between and apart. The twin gene doesn’t run in my family, but I can confidently say that having children so close together in age is double the trouble. My husband and I basically endured screaming infancy, terrible twos, and angsty adolescence at twice the regular intensity. 

I love dysfunctional family sitcoms like Arrested Development. They’re a family business with a snarky matriarch, a criminal father, and three incompetent adult children among a total of four. 

They make me feel a little better about the chaos that goes on over here. 

We recently had quite an icky ordeal thanks to my daughters who do not understand the limits of what should and should not go down the sink or toilet.

(If my daughters are reading this: I love you, but I do question your judgment at times.)

Alas, this is the life I chose when I became a mother, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I am in a case of arrested development; I want my children to hurry up and grow up—but I’m not sure if they do!

My daughters will clog the drain with hair that should have been caught by the shower drain sieve, which they always forget to use. My daughters will clog the drain while washing the dishes, by pouring residual oil down the drain instead of first emptying it into the bin. I also suspect that they use way too much hairspray and mousse in their hair, which isn’t a problem until they wash it out, and the stickiness of those hair products inevitably becomes a plumbing issue.

I know that drain unclogging liquid is always an option, and I’ll usually opt for the fastest and cheapest option. But the phenomenon of a mother’s intuition is a gift I try not to ignore. Something in my gut told me it wasn’t a good idea. I went online, and low and behold, I read some pretty shocking and horrifying stories about the liquid splashing back from a clogged drain and onto a loved one. There was no way I would take the risk with something so corrosive.

I knew I had to call the professionals and let them do exactly what they are trained and experienced at doing. I asked my mommy support chat group and they all recommended California Plumbing, Chula Vista plumbers who offer various types of plumbing services with amazing Yelp reviews to back it up.

I highly recommend their services to anyone who has a plumbing issue (or several), especially those who are busy and working mothers. California Plumbing was able to unclog the upstairs bathroom drains within the day, and I have already scheduled an appointment for them to inspect our water heater. Perhaps it is time for an upgrade to something more energy-efficient or eco-friendly. 

Arrested development and motherhood, one day at a time.