As every homeowner I know rammed down my throat in the weeks before we closed on the house, expect the unexpected. Surprises pop up when you least expect it, especially in old homes.
Well, duh.
What I didn’t expect, however, was a big, dangerous, expensive surprise to pop up within the first 24 hours of homeownership. When I called in our first gas reading, I mentioned that I smelled a very faint gas odor that morning – nothing I was worried about, just thought I’d mention it. Thankfully, Jeremy had taken the day off of work and would be home all day to let the gas company in.
Which he did, right before they shut off the gas to the house. Their equipment showed so many leaks in the gas lines that Jeremy said the machine was shrieking almost constantly.
Three days later, I had the day off and spent 3 hours with the world’s nicest plumber. He and his assistant removed 60 feet of unnecessary and dangerous gas line from our basement, and upgraded the remaining pipe. A very expensive, but very necessary endeavor. We now have a safe environment in which to live, and will probably save a ton of money in utility costs.
Oh, and we had our first major success this week, too. For under $10 and in under an hour, Jeremy and I fixed the leaky toilet. (Jeremy did most of the work, I basically stood there in awe of the 100-year-old plumbing in the bathroom floor.)
It was hysterical when he finished- we were both so afraid to flush it to see if the fix had worked that we had a “you do it,” “no, you do it” session for about 5 minutes.
And by Jove, there were no leaks when I hit the lever. Watch our egos begin to inflate… we can do ANYTHING! Mwah-ah-ah.
