Fall of the House of Usher, Part Million
If you've been following this blog for a while you may know we have had a lot of work done to our house in response to various problems (foundation work, plumbing, etc). At this point its basically had most of its insides replaced. (It was very solidly built - by amateurs - in 1969.)
So a couple of weeks ago I smelled gas in the kitchen. The emergency gas company people came and said the hose and valve for the gas stove were incorrect and leaking and needed to be replaced. So I got an appointment with our regular plumber to come do that. As they were making the repairs, (I dread the words, "Boss, I found something weird.") they realized that when they touched the stove and the gas line, they felt an electrical charge. This is really bad, because electrified gas lines can explode. Plumbers recommended an electrician and ran out the door. I called the electrician and they showed up within an hour (which was pretty fast considering there had been a giant storm the night before and they were slammed with calls).
There was a lot of worried searching by the very calm and methodical electrician, who finally traced it to the outlet the stove was plugged into, which was apparently completely jacked and had been since before we moved in. (And the breakers for it didn't work either, so we're just lucky we're not dead, basically.) (The electricians called it a "handyman special.") So that got fixed, but he also found that the pole where our electrical service is connected to the house is actually being pulled out of the house and that needs to be fixed Real Soon.
So I had them come out today and do an estimate, and it's not as bad as I thought, in that we may get out of the this whole situation for around $1000, and the stove is working again. Though that's a $1000 I wasn't planning on spending.
***
Recs:
Audio story: Toasted Cake 145: Boneshadow by Jessica Reisman, read by Alex C. Renwick
New Book: Edge of Dreams by Diana Pharaoh Francis
My Stuff:
* Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories is out now in ebook
* Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below is coming out in June.
So a couple of weeks ago I smelled gas in the kitchen. The emergency gas company people came and said the hose and valve for the gas stove were incorrect and leaking and needed to be replaced. So I got an appointment with our regular plumber to come do that. As they were making the repairs, (I dread the words, "Boss, I found something weird.") they realized that when they touched the stove and the gas line, they felt an electrical charge. This is really bad, because electrified gas lines can explode. Plumbers recommended an electrician and ran out the door. I called the electrician and they showed up within an hour (which was pretty fast considering there had been a giant storm the night before and they were slammed with calls).
There was a lot of worried searching by the very calm and methodical electrician, who finally traced it to the outlet the stove was plugged into, which was apparently completely jacked and had been since before we moved in. (And the breakers for it didn't work either, so we're just lucky we're not dead, basically.) (The electricians called it a "handyman special.") So that got fixed, but he also found that the pole where our electrical service is connected to the house is actually being pulled out of the house and that needs to be fixed Real Soon.
So I had them come out today and do an estimate, and it's not as bad as I thought, in that we may get out of the this whole situation for around $1000, and the stove is working again. Though that's a $1000 I wasn't planning on spending.
***
Recs:
Audio story: Toasted Cake 145: Boneshadow by Jessica Reisman, read by Alex C. Renwick
New Book: Edge of Dreams by Diana Pharaoh Francis
My Stuff:
* Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories is out now in ebook
* Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below is coming out in June.
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Sorry for your hassles and expenses.