Tuesday, January 30, 2018

One of the Many Joys of Home Ownership

Taking a short and unexpected break from fixing cars, today's post is a distraction. Sorry I missed a post last week. I spent the week flat on my back fighting off one of the worst colds I've ever suffered. The story below didn't contribute to either contracting nor prolonging that cold.

Basics
If you were to break down the core requirements for a dwelling, and then prioritize them, what order would they fall into? I'd start with shelter from rain and wind: roof and walls. After that, one could argue that everything else is nice-to-have, especially in more rustic parts of the world. In the non-rural areas of the States (like most countries), things like running water and some form of temperature control are assumed. Hot water even. How about a not-dirt floor? Sure, that sounds modern.

On top of these basics, lots of folks are trying to layer in "smart" technologies so they can turn on lights or set the thermostat from their phone when they aren't home. Sounds cool, but after the whizz-bang wears off, do people actually use that stuff? I don't know. I'm pretty sure the excitement wears off in a few weeks and pretty soon you've forgotten the password.

Heat Wave without Water
Anyway, when one of these basic systems fail, you realize just how precarious and fragile your security bubble is. Last Summer, we awoke to a failed water heater. It failed in glorious fashion, leaking water all over the garage floor, trashing cardboard boxes, carpet and anything non-metal as it went. It did create an opportunity to clean the garage, of course. And we took it. More importantly, it reminded us of the fragility I mentioned. Since it was July, and one of the hottest stretches of the Summer, lacking a shower had an extra burden to it. Additionally, I couldn't figure out how to fix any of the plumbing so that there was water pressure  even just cold so we were without water for a few days. Again, it was Summer, and we had kids enjoying Summer break, so there were many trips to the corner store to bridge the gap. I installed a new water heater, and we were back to normal in a few days. Looking back through my posts, it was such a non-event, it didn't make it into even an opening or closing comment, much less garner an entire posting.

6 Inches
This brings us to our latest reminder of our fragility. It was the end of the calendar year, and my extended family had retreated to the mountains. T had gone out of town and C had to work, so we had a couple of friends minding the house (more specifically, minding the cat who was really minding the house). C had a few hours on Friday before he had to work, so he stopped over to grind some paint off the rear driver quarter panel. As I mentioned earlier (See: Z - Work that Body), we had moved the ZX project into the garage. C, expressing concern over getting dust everywhere, pushed the ZX into the driveway to grind the paint. When he was finished and had to get off to work, he tried to push the ZX back into the garage. With the slight uphill into the garage, though, he couldn't. So, he fired up the engine to move it in ... but accidentally put it in a little too far... pushing the big red rolling tool cabinet into the water heater... which pushed the water heater into the pipes behind it. It moved about 6 inches. Those 6 inches started an avalanche of trouble.

Above the water heater, the feed line burst, sending a thin stream of water over the top of the water heater and on top of the rolling tool cabinet. At the bottom of the water heater, the gas line split, venting natural gas into the garage. The couple minding the cat turned off valves and called the gas company, but before long the fire trucks arrived, cherries flashing. Fire fighters kicked everyone out of the house. The gas company closed and locked the meter. The cat-minders were let back into the house after the fumes cleared, but by then it was after 6. On Friday, December 29th and freezing temperatures were forecast. With no water. And no heat. And no one available to fix anything until the following Tuesday... if you're lucky.

Cold Snap without Water... or Gas
Fortunately, one of our cat-minders is a handyman. He was able to re-establish our cold water (so the restrooms were functioning) and repair the gas lines. With a few space heaters and a portable Coleman stove they were able to mind the cat until we got home. You see, the gas company won't turn the gas on until someone licensed performs a leak-down test on the repair, then they will inspect it. Only after that will they turn the gas back on. I understand their conservative approach, but when the temps are below freezing, the process could really use a fast lane.

Boo and I got home on Jan1, and were met by the cat-minding couple. We surveyed the damage, expressed our appreciation for keeping both the cat and the house safe... and for helping C through a rough time. Then, we started reaching out to a contractor we know to get everything back to normal again. He, like so many folks immediately after NewYears were groggily getting back to work. He was available to connect with us on Wednesday. He surveyed the work done by the handyman, thought it looked pretty good and started calling for the gas company to come take a look.

We learned that indeed the gas company won't turn on your gas until a leak down test is performed, but that was not even the half of it. Before the gas company will talk to you, you need the gas lines inspected by the city. The city won't inspect non-permitted work (even if, or maybe especially if, it's done by a home owner). So, step one: get $167 down to city hall and get a work permit. Then, schedule an inspection. We were fortunate and we got inspected on Wednesday evening. While waiting, we ran the leak-down test and pressure-tested the hot water heater (both passed). The inspector was one of those who felt the need to find things wrong, and he cited a bunch of things to be changed even though the repairs simply exchanged broken pipes with a not-broken pipes. So, Thursday was spent making all kinds of additional changes involving 2x4's so the inspector could return Friday morning, which he did. He approved the work, and switched our "red tag" on the meter to green (meaning the gas company was allowed to turn the gas back on, pending their inspection). Then, the contractor was allowed to hook up the water heater and try to get NW Natural to turn us back on. The NW Natural inspector arrived shortly before 5 on Friday, approved all of the work, making comments about the age and condition of things, and then turned everything back on. Unlike the city inspector, there is no requirement for us to do anything the gas company guy said, so we probably won't. As it stood at this point, those 6 inches cost us about $1000US with about half of it because of things the city inspector added. At least we didn't need to replace the water heater.

Normal?
By Friday night, things were back to normal. T had returned from out of town and grabbed a shower. We had the heat cranking to raise the base temperatures of the no-space-heater spaces, and our little bubble was starting to reform. As we sat down to dinner, we realized that we hadn't had the TV on for almost the entire stretch we didn't have heat or hot water. It seemed as though our having to glamp in our house shifted us to a different mindset. We had access to other modern amenities, like the internet and cable television; we just didn't use them. Instead, we sat in the hot tub and talked, or focused on basics like getting clean with an electric kettle and a dishpan. As the days of suffering fade into the past, it was just as interesting to see our old use patterns return as if they had never left. It does make me wonder how much of our daily behaviors really stem from independent thought versus rote actions we've honed over time. Perhaps, if the environment changes enough, the rote behaviors don't come into play.

Well, that's all I have this week. We are back to normal. The garage was an absolute mess afterwards, so I spent the following weekend cleaning things up. The progress on the list of car projects has ground to a halt, pending the no-gas and clean-up, so there may be a short pause in postings while I get some blog-worthy things done. The missing post from last week was purely sickness related, so there could be more ahead. Sorry.

Thanks, as always, for following along. More soon-



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