Yup...
Our Journey Through Life, Laughter, and the Adventures in Parenthood.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
We Have No Gas
Sometimes I feel like we can never accomplish anything without something getting in our way. As I have mentioned one or two times Quinten is such an outside kid (which I totally don't mind). It comes in handy because our tiny little house has a yard that is quite possibly bigger than our home! We've worked hard on keeping our grass plush and green, we've planted veggies every year. We have toys and decorations. So with the onset of Quinten's birthday (and party yay!), and us bringing in his gift from us (custom "boy cave" playhouse built by dad!), we decided to do a little remodeling of sorts outside. We wanted to move the trelace we installed last year over the grass, and build a circle table around the one post thats in the yard. We moved the swings onto the back/side of the yard, and weeded through his outside stuff. This was our plan for Saturday. My parents came down so my dad and Shannon could do the constructing, while my mom and I did the cleaning, and entertaining the almost 3 year old who wants to help with everything. Shannon and I went out early to do what we could before my folks got here and were greeted with face full of gas! Hoping it would dissipate we continued on. But damn that stuff wreaks!! (for obvious reasons I know). It took about 10 minutes of grossing out before I was on the phone with the gas co. Funny how you call to report a gas leak, they put you on hold, and tell you they'll be out "sometime today." Ya, ok, don't light a match right? So 3 hours later, an almost complete yard, and ya I BBQ'd lunch, and the gas guy finally shows up. He smelled it and detected it pretty quick. Although we never smelled gas in the house, and it was pretty obvious where it was coming from, he watched the meter while having my husband shut off every single gas appliance in the house to make sure it wasn't one of those. And of course it wasn't, the meter kept spinning even with the entire house shut off. Crap. It's between us and the meter, which you know what that means? The gas co. isn't responsible, its the homeowner, our landlord. The gas guy said its one of the worst leaks he's seen, and we're lucky we caught it when we did, shut it off, red tagged it and locked it. Its somewhere under our walkway or yard, yes the yard we have worked so hard to keep nice. And of course its Saturday and the plumber said most likely it will be more cost effective to just lay a new line, then try and track down the leak on this old property. Annnd he can't get to the parts yard until Monday when it opens. Thanks. So here we sat, with the little bit of hot water left in our tank, the half dried clothes in the dryer, and glad we have a propane bbq outside. So now its Sunday, we've used all our hot water, and I'm dreading the cold shower I get to endure tonight. We will hear from the plumber in the morning as to our time line. And then I guess this week they will be destroying our beautiful yard to lay a new line. I'm glad we're all safe, I'm glad we found it, I'm glad my parents are only a half hour away if this process is going to take long enough we have to get outta dodge. But c'mon! We have a birthday party in 2 weeks HERE. And this just blows. How was your Saturday?
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Thats horrible! Cold showers are the worst. Hopefully they get you fixed up soon. Have you thought about renting a sod cutter/ripper? If you're really worried about messing up your lawn, you could have them mark out where they are going to trench, then cut and roll up the grass, then replace it when they're done. And if they're driving heavy equipment on your lawn you can lay plywood (or something) under the tracks to help. Just make sure you tell them to try to cause as little damage as possible! Jerad had to replace a waterline with a leak under someone's lawn once who was super worried about messing up the grass and did the whole sod ripper thing and it worked out! I think they have them at taylor rentals and rental depot.
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