The Odyssey

We got some really cold weather that prohibited muddin' and yielded an ice rink out front.

The low temperatures also postponed the repair.  Warm weather came again and Thursday was the day to fix everything.

Around 10:30, I came home to this:

What a big job!  While I was snapping photos, the crew mentioned the water pipe was sparking and I witnessed it too.


Yikes.

 Everything stopped.  They called the town water and electrical inspectors. 

I returned indoors and was messing around on the computer when I smelled burning.  Initially I attributed it to soldering but then I got worried.  I went outside and mentioned it to the foreman and a crew member.  The crew member said, "We were jack hammering down in the basement," and just chalked it up to that.  The foreman accompanied me to the basement and smelled what I smelled.  Burning.  I knew it wasn't good when the foreman ran quickly back upstairs and shouted, "Scotty!  Scotty!  You gotta get down here!"

Scotty joined us in the basement.  We sniffed around but couldn't find the source.  All of the electricity was turned off.  Scotty poked around at the circuit breaker.  He and another member of the crew are firemen. They allayed some of my concerns. 

We returned outside and waited for the inspectors as the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.  It was cold and I was getting increasingly stressed.

To think I once thought the biggest source of stress in this project was going to be the crew's care of our little maple.  Ha.  

At this point, I was so worried I stopped taking photos.

The water inspector arrived and didn't have much information to offer.  Shortly thereafter my husband also arrived home.  The water inspector left and we continued waiting around outside.  

Within five minutes of his arrival, the electrical inspector spotted the problem.  The neutral at the electric pole was snapped.  Typically a home has two neutrals - one buried and one above ground.   Without one of these, all of the current is absorbed by just one.  This may have been what caused the pipe to leak.  The inspector said the odor we detected was probably something burning out and we should be prepared for damage.  He told us we would also need to call an electrician to connect a new ground and that the electric company would have to repair the neutral. The inspector called the electric company. 

The crew resumed their work and were visibly shaken.  They joked, "Man!  We thought this would be an easy job and we'd be out of here by 1!"  One said, "Well, I don't think anything else can go wrong."  Scotty said, "Oh no.  More can go wrong.  More can go wrong."

I was able to get an electrician who arrived and looked around in the basement only to say, "Until the power company makes their repair, I can't assess anything."  Shortly after he left, I left too.  I needed a break and headed up to the thrift store.

When I returned home, the foreman said, "Yeah.  We broke your neighbor's drain pipe."  The neighbor has a sump pump in his basement the connects with our sump pump drain pipe.  I thought he was joking and laughed, but he wasn't joking.  More had gone wrong. 

The sun went down.  The guys were getting around using flashlights.  Still no sign of the power company.  They hoped to be able to thread some of the pipe through the ground, but weren't able to.  They had to dig the trench all the way to the house.  I stood at the street and was able to see flickers of light in the basement through a hole they had drilled in the foundation.  A pretty wild sight.  I had calmed down enough to take a photo, but it was just too dark. 

I took a walk up town to get a drink and have something to eat.  My husband returned home and helped them get squared away.  They were finally able to cover the hole and he joined me at the bar.

When we got back home, the electric company had already repaired the line.  We spent the night without heat and electricity.  We left all of the faucets on with a slow drip to prevent the pipes from freezing.

I took the day off to ensure we got the electricity repaired and restored.  The excavating crew returned to apply top soil and grade the lawn, as well as finish the work that needed to be done on the foundation in the basement. 

The electrician was able to return around 4.  He advised me to turn on everything to check for damage while he connected the ground.  I was able to turn everything on except for the heat. Then we discovered the primary source of the burning smell - a light in the basement.  It was a tremendous relief to find the source.  

The electrician left and my husband came home from work.  He looked at the furnace but was not able to get it working.  He suspected the transformer was blown.  It was so cold, we could see our breath. We had to call an emergency HVAC technician.  We waited.  My husband was anxious.   He was pacing around, wearing socks with flip flops, and drinking wine from a coffee mug.  The technican arrived and confirmed my husband's assessment:  the transformer had blown.   

After he made the repair around 10:30 pm, we realized the surge had also ruined the programmable thermostat.  Thank goodness we had a second one on hand - we bought two with intentions of installing one upstairs but never got around to it.  Once the replacement was made, we had heat again and the odyssey finally came to a close.