What a day
Before we got married, Matt signed up for some sort home appliance homeowners insurance that he heard about from one of his brothers. We haven't needed to use it in the past 8 months, however when we got the fireplace gas line capped off the plumber mentioned that the water heater is getting old and starting to rust away and leak on the bottom (it's a very slow drip leak).
So Matt and I decided we'd try our luck with this insurance we've been paying $40 a month for and see if they'd replace the water heater for us. How it works is that the homeowner pays $60 for a technician to come and inspect whatever appliance you think isn't functioning properly and then the insurance company pays that technician to fix it, or replace it if necessary.
The day came for the insurance-contracted plumbing inspector to diagnose our water heater. He spent about 5-10 minutes looking at it and told Matt that he would replace it. Within about an hour he had the old one out and the new one in. So the insurance more than paid for itself. We're still debating whether its worth keeping for another year or if we should just cut it off... not important.
We went to work the rest of the day and got home around 5:30. I started dinner but still smelled gas in the garage (where the water heater is). Matt smelled it too when he got home but said, "oh, maybe it just hasn't dissipated all the way." We hastily ate dinner and went off to birthing class.
10:30pm--a late night for birthing class, but we were glad to finally be home. Slight smell of gas and then we open the door (garage into house) and whoof! we got a big whif of gas now as we are inside the house. Hm.
"I don't think we should be smelling gas inside, Matt."
"Yeah, something isn't right. Who do we call."
"I don't know. (thinking to myself, the plumber can't come back, he lives an hour away)"
"The fire department?"
"Sure. They'll probably know what to do."
Mr. Prepared as a list of all the city/county offices emergency numbers on the side of the refrigerator and starts dialing. While he gets transferred to a few different people I walked around and only smelled it by the door going back into the garage.
After he hangs up the phone, Matt says "Christy, we need to get out."
I felt slightly inconvenienced but also a little excited, wondering what is going to become of all this. So I leisurely go get my coat again from the room, along with a hat, mittens, and scarf. I might as well be warm if I have to go stand outside at night in January.
We stood at the corner and heard the sirens turn on at the fire station a little over a mile down the road from us. wriiiiIIIIIIIRRRRRRrrrrrr.....wriiiIIIIIIIIRRRRRrrrrrrr.....
"oh dear, how embarrassing," I thought. "There isn't actually anything wrong. We just smelled gas."
Matt explained that he asked dispatch if they could come without the sirens on but the friendly lady on the other end replied, "oh, I'm sorry sir. That's protocol."
They were getting closer and closer until they were a block away and then they turned the wrong way and one street too early even though Matt was out on the corner waving his arm at them. (I was slightly embarrassed by him flapping his arm so much, but what do you do... I love you Matt!)
The family across the street has an autistic son who is really sensitive to noise so Matt and I looked at each other as the fire engine and ambulance turned around and came towards our street. "Poor Ryan."
So the firemen park in front of our house (I really wished we didn't live on a corner at this point because we got twice as much attention from on-lookers.) They jump out in the fire suits and helmets; Matt quickly debriefs them on our "little" dilemma; and while they seem to be urgently inspecting our garage, house, and yard I see more lights coming from the other end of our street. There were two more fire engines and an additional ambulance. I don't really like having extra attention to myself, especially like this... I guess they were prepared for our house to explode.
Meanwhile, the fire rescue team pulls up in their truck. Neighbors are coming from all directions to see what's the matter at the Haggard's house. While the firemen did their thing Matt and I explained our little gas leak over and over and over again as more and more concerned neighbors came to check on us.
After about a half hour the gas leak in the line to the water heater was confirmed; the gas shut off; the five extra emergency vehicles depart our street; and Matt and I chat with the firemen that remain until the representative from the gas company comes to fix the leak. They were quite pleasant company, although I still felt a little embarrassed that we caused such a raucous.
Eventually the gas man came. He fixed our leak and turned our gas back on. Then he poked holes (pretty deep holes) into the ground in 15 places around our house and use a probe to make sure the gas hadn't leaked anywhere underground (a bit much if you ask me, for a water heater problem, but again we learned "that was protocol"). Between him and the firemen I learned about a few other houses in the county that have exploded from gas leaks... it wasn't really what I expected to hear about but it was interesting nonetheless. The gas man also stayed and chatted for quite a while. He had interesting stories to share about being in the military and being deployed in Afghanistan. It was kind of fun actually. He let me ask him questions about military training and boot camp and he had lots of stories, which I appreciated because I don't have any idea what military service is like but have been curious for a long time.
Matt and I eventually got to go to sleep around 1:00 a.m. That was a late night, but quite an eventful day. I'm sorry I have no pictures to document it. I could have saved quite a few words with a few pictures. I'll try to have my camera ready next time we need the fire department to visit our house, which will hopefully be as non-eventful as this time was.
So Matt and I decided we'd try our luck with this insurance we've been paying $40 a month for and see if they'd replace the water heater for us. How it works is that the homeowner pays $60 for a technician to come and inspect whatever appliance you think isn't functioning properly and then the insurance company pays that technician to fix it, or replace it if necessary.
The day came for the insurance-contracted plumbing inspector to diagnose our water heater. He spent about 5-10 minutes looking at it and told Matt that he would replace it. Within about an hour he had the old one out and the new one in. So the insurance more than paid for itself. We're still debating whether its worth keeping for another year or if we should just cut it off... not important.
We went to work the rest of the day and got home around 5:30. I started dinner but still smelled gas in the garage (where the water heater is). Matt smelled it too when he got home but said, "oh, maybe it just hasn't dissipated all the way." We hastily ate dinner and went off to birthing class.
10:30pm--a late night for birthing class, but we were glad to finally be home. Slight smell of gas and then we open the door (garage into house) and whoof! we got a big whif of gas now as we are inside the house. Hm.
"I don't think we should be smelling gas inside, Matt."
"Yeah, something isn't right. Who do we call."
"I don't know. (thinking to myself, the plumber can't come back, he lives an hour away)"
"The fire department?"
"Sure. They'll probably know what to do."
Mr. Prepared as a list of all the city/county offices emergency numbers on the side of the refrigerator and starts dialing. While he gets transferred to a few different people I walked around and only smelled it by the door going back into the garage.
After he hangs up the phone, Matt says "Christy, we need to get out."
I felt slightly inconvenienced but also a little excited, wondering what is going to become of all this. So I leisurely go get my coat again from the room, along with a hat, mittens, and scarf. I might as well be warm if I have to go stand outside at night in January.
We stood at the corner and heard the sirens turn on at the fire station a little over a mile down the road from us. wriiiiIIIIIIIRRRRRRrrrrrr.....wriiiIIIIIIIIRRRRRrrrrrrr.....
"oh dear, how embarrassing," I thought. "There isn't actually anything wrong. We just smelled gas."
Matt explained that he asked dispatch if they could come without the sirens on but the friendly lady on the other end replied, "oh, I'm sorry sir. That's protocol."
They were getting closer and closer until they were a block away and then they turned the wrong way and one street too early even though Matt was out on the corner waving his arm at them. (I was slightly embarrassed by him flapping his arm so much, but what do you do... I love you Matt!)
The family across the street has an autistic son who is really sensitive to noise so Matt and I looked at each other as the fire engine and ambulance turned around and came towards our street. "Poor Ryan."
So the firemen park in front of our house (I really wished we didn't live on a corner at this point because we got twice as much attention from on-lookers.) They jump out in the fire suits and helmets; Matt quickly debriefs them on our "little" dilemma; and while they seem to be urgently inspecting our garage, house, and yard I see more lights coming from the other end of our street. There were two more fire engines and an additional ambulance. I don't really like having extra attention to myself, especially like this... I guess they were prepared for our house to explode.
Meanwhile, the fire rescue team pulls up in their truck. Neighbors are coming from all directions to see what's the matter at the Haggard's house. While the firemen did their thing Matt and I explained our little gas leak over and over and over again as more and more concerned neighbors came to check on us.
After about a half hour the gas leak in the line to the water heater was confirmed; the gas shut off; the five extra emergency vehicles depart our street; and Matt and I chat with the firemen that remain until the representative from the gas company comes to fix the leak. They were quite pleasant company, although I still felt a little embarrassed that we caused such a raucous.
Eventually the gas man came. He fixed our leak and turned our gas back on. Then he poked holes (pretty deep holes) into the ground in 15 places around our house and use a probe to make sure the gas hadn't leaked anywhere underground (a bit much if you ask me, for a water heater problem, but again we learned "that was protocol"). Between him and the firemen I learned about a few other houses in the county that have exploded from gas leaks... it wasn't really what I expected to hear about but it was interesting nonetheless. The gas man also stayed and chatted for quite a while. He had interesting stories to share about being in the military and being deployed in Afghanistan. It was kind of fun actually. He let me ask him questions about military training and boot camp and he had lots of stories, which I appreciated because I don't have any idea what military service is like but have been curious for a long time.
Matt and I eventually got to go to sleep around 1:00 a.m. That was a late night, but quite an eventful day. I'm sorry I have no pictures to document it. I could have saved quite a few words with a few pictures. I'll try to have my camera ready next time we need the fire department to visit our house, which will hopefully be as non-eventful as this time was.
What a day!
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