A House Owner's Hell Week Story
1. Last Week - Monday: I had called about rusty pipes to my gas meter. Gas man found gas leak outside the house at the meter at the point where pipe and concrete meet as pipe heads down driveway toward the street. Small leak, so guy will have a different crew out Tues morning.
2. Last Tuesday: They couldn't shut off the main valve at the street without tearing out half the sidewalk and driveway using a jackhammer and rear end loader. Took all day to replace the main line to my meter.
3. Late Tuesday: A pressure test showed that there is/was leaks inside house, so they won't turn on gas til those are fixed - after 1 and 1/2 days of crazy shit of trying to fix a gazillion little leaks I said fuck it and just tore out the entire gas line that's in the crawl way under the house. We've been rebuilding that since Thursday morning. -- I think we're at $300 now for pipes and connectors, etc. - and at least 9 trips to the various hardware and do-it-yourself stores in the area.
4. Friday: I managed to bust a water line with my shoulder while tightening a gas pipe connection. I'm sure you can picture me under the house in a crawl space with cold water shooting down my head and back and I can't even straighten up to turn around to find the shutoff valve without getting it in the face too! (And of course my can of PVC GLUE was old and wouldn't open even with pliers ... so off to store to buy more to fix the water pipe)
5. Late Friday Night and Early Saturday -- half the house electricity started flickering and went out, then would come on again, and finally failed. I tested all of the breakers and the main box is fine, but the sub panel isn't getting the right amperage to function. Plus the hot water tank and pipes around it are now "electrified". Got a couple nasty shocks from the tank as I had to lean over it to reach the main electric panel. I've hired an electrician today from Angie's List for $129, have to setup an appt. for them to come out and figure out what's what. I can do some electric work, but this is out of my capabilities.
5. We took Sunday and Monday off out of sheer exhaustion, pain and frustration. Man -- it's hell not having hot water or a working stove! I'm microwaving water to wash in, do dishes, do some minimal cooking (we've been buying pizza, tacos and fast food burgers which isn't really that good for any of us with our high cholesterol, diabetes, etc) BTW - just an FYI - you can't cook spaghetti in a bowl of hot water in the microwave ... it just makes wheat paste).
I'm just glad it isn't winter as we also have a gas furnace. Oh, and did I mention that with half the power off, I only have one working outlet in the kitchen? So I have to move in the coffee pot, make coffee then hook the power to the microwave or toaster oven to fix any food or hot water we need, and of course I can't use two appliances at once or I blow the circuit ...
6. So here it is, This Week - Tuesday. I finally got enough line installed (after another trip to the hardware store) and pressure tested with air to run the stove, so tomorrow I'll call and hopefully get the gas back on. I'm not hooking up the hot water tank until the electrician figures out why it's shocking us, but at least I can heat bigger pans of water on a working stove! So ... Cross your fingers ....
