Well this week I wanted to share a few things that have been amazing blessings in our family! I will post all three of them this week.
On Monday night we decided it was time for the kiddos to head off to bed. So they ran to brush teeth, get PJs on, and then scuttled across the stairs to their bedroom. After a few moments of discussion it was decided that my wife would tuck them in, since I was holding the new baby. {Usually, I tuck them in}
My wife came back to the living room after being gone for a little while saying that the kids room smelled a little odd. I said, I would check on in a few moments. One thing led to another and it was finally time for bed around midnight. Needless to say, I never went and checked on the girls.
My wife went down with the little one while I washed a couple of items to bring down for bed. That is when my wife called out, “Kevin, you might want to come down here.” “In a minute babe” was my response. “I think you should come NOW!” called Ashlee. So I went running down the stairs, skipping the last couple. When I got down there, my wife said she smelt the same smell in the laundry room, but no longer in he kids room. So I smelled around, checked somethings out with no luck of smelling or seeing anything.
After a few moments of web research I found our electric company’s 24-hour hot-line. My wife kept saying it smelled like propane when she thought about it. So we decided we better get it checked out. Around 1 AM the technician rolled into the driveway, and boy, he did not look all that happy!
When he came in, he was very polite and asked what we were concerned about. He slowly made his way around my girls room and laundry room with a machine that I could only describe as the PKE (Psycho Kinetic Energy) Meter that Kenner carried around in the GHOSTBUSTERS Movie.
He said, I am not getting much, until he leaned over by the hot water heater, and BOOM. The thing went off and sounded like the tornado siren was in my laundry room! The thing started flashing red, buzzing, chiming, and all kinds of stuff. He slowly stepped back and with the most Kenner look of seriousness {sorry if you have never seen Ghostbusters} said, “you’re going to have to get that fixed.”
My first reaction. “DUH, I kind of figured that one out!” Of course, I did not say that though, I said, “Man, I am so glad you came.” “I am too, let me go to my truck I will be right back, ” he said as he ran up the stairs. Fifteen minutes later he returned with good and bad news.
“The good news is that your pipes need replaced alone with the valves and since I have no other calls and it is 2 AM, I am going to fix them. You normally would have to have an emergency call, but I am up and no reason to wake someone else up. The bad news is that the line outside also has a leak. So I will replace that one too!” he said almost excitedly.
He worked, and worked for the next two hours. Finally, finishing around 4:15. He brought in cookies & a cook book (no kidding) as a thank you for me ALLOWING him to FIX my problem. {Can you say, I was very THANKFUL!} Then he explained that all the pipes in our house was not replaced and resealed, as well as the ones outside. When discussing with him, the WE Energies guys are not supposed to do this type of work, due to volume, and taking work away from contractors. The work he did on our house was around $1000 worth of work. He cleaned and inspected parts on the heater, replaced the pipes outside, painted the pipes to coordinate and protect them, then he replaced all the pipes and valves on the inside of my house. Not to mention the cost of an overnight emergency call to a technician.
So all in all, our house is not going to blow up, our heater is clean and efficient, and all pipes are repaired. Final outcome, that weird smell my wife kept smelling is no longer a problem in the house!
