Gas: Fallin’ Apart Only to be put Back Together!

This probably isn’t the post you think it is given the title, but I had to have a little fun!

We had interesting Saturday and, subsequently, Monday mornings. It’s gotten cold here. Friday, I decided to turn the heat on. I never paid attention, but apparently the furnace did not fire up. Saturday morning, when my husband arose to take the dog out at 6 a.m., it was a cool 62 degrees in the house. He couldn’t get the furnace to turn on, so he flipped the switch on our gas fireplace. It lit and he went on with his errands. Mid- morning he came home from being out and smelled natural gas as he drove past a new development adjacent to our yard. He was in the process of telling me about it when I noticed a fireman (dressed in full regalia) come out from behind our barn!

I said, “Uh, there’s a fireman walking around by the barn!” This sent my husband outside to learn that while doing some landscaping on the newest house in the addition, which happens to back up to our front side yard, the developer “hit” a gas main. The fireman only wanted to know if our barn used gas. The reply was no. But, then my husband had to go back to tell him and the developer that our once recently lit fireplace was now out and our furnace was out as well.

Long story short, The developer did not know of the gas line. It as not on any plat maps they had for their property. Our gas line, however, was running over to the line they hit and accounted for our outage. For Satruday and Sunday, we ran the fireplace to heat the house. Since it is gas and has a blower that only really affects the immediate room, we wondered if we’d be warm enough since our nights are getting cold. We were fine. In fact, I for one was reminded of the luxury of living in a heated space!

In the meantime, on Saturday, the gas company placed an emergency order to move our line onto our property. They came in to restart the fireplace for us as the impaired line was mended. They marked the driveway with flags. Other utilities followed suit. Unfortunately, we have an outdoor, underground fence we installed for our dog. Large labradors love to run and we have more than enough room, with three acres, to allow her to do that. But, the minute she saw the flags, she did not want to go to the front yard! Flags were used to train her as to the perimeter boundaries of the invisible fence! Well, at this point all we could do was hope that she’d be okay after the flags were removed when the job was done.

This morning, Monday arrived. The gas company was here by 9 to cut in a new trench and lay a new line. The dog fence was going to be cut and repaired by them. When my husband went out to talk to them, he mentioned the furnace not working. So, they said a tech could look at it since one would be coming in after they finished with the new line to restart anything that used gas in our house. Guess what?! They restarted the furnace! And, we have heat!

At some point over the weekend, we were wondering if we would need to replace our furnace. Luckily, that is not the case right now. But, our list of things to address in the spring is getting longer and longer. Our house is “at that age.” Throughout the last 48 hours, I’ve been so impressed with our local gas company and the fire department. They were all very polite and very responsive to our needs. They came in, doing their jobs efficiently and professionally when we not even the cause of the problem! And, the dog’s been out since the flags have been removed and although leery, she played as usual.

If only the entire world worked like this, it would be wonderful!

Oh, and it’s good to have heat!