Crapville Lane

Current mood: uncomfortable
Two Fridays ago I found a postcard in our mailbox stating that we had a certified letter at the post office. We would be able to pick it up at the post office the next morning at 9:00, but we couldn't because Nolan had the mother of all football tournaments. They started at the field at 10 and didn't end until after 6:30-ish. It was a long, tiresome, angry, windy day. I was so glad when it ended. And the whole time we watched the games, I wondered what that stupid certified letter was all about.
I went through my mental checklist. Credit cards- paid, house- paid, insurance- paid, phone- paid, cells- paid, cable- paid... After the full rundown, I deduced that someone we knew had died and left us money. Bummer on the dead thing, but the money would be nice, especially right before Christmas.
Monday morning I got the kids to school, went to the gym, went for groceries and hit the post office on the trip back home. I stood in line behind the guy from FirstLight Federal Credit Union and his enormous bin of mail and his 491 certified and registered letters, each of which required a signature, the lady in scrubs who had to harp on the post office lady behind the signature counter for five and a half minutes about having to wait behind the guy from FirstLight Federal Credit Union, and then it was finally my turn.
Our letter was from the city of El Paso Environmental Services Code Compliance Department. Upon reading said certified letter I learned that our house was in violation of the things listed on lines three and five. Apparently, we had an accumulation of weeds, trash and debris around both sides of our house, the front of our house, and the back of our house (which borders a busy road). Heh? I called them. I asked them what exactly was wrong. He told me that he was sure he had the right house and that ours was in very bad shape. Now, if you know us, you know that is a joke. We are pretty picky about the outside of our house. That comes from living in military quarters for twelve years.
After I got pissed and finished talking to the guy and making an appointment with him to come out and tell us specifically waht the problems were, I went and walked around the house to find the problems. The only thing I found which was even remotely out of code was some grass growing around the gas meter. I stooped over to pick the grass and smelled gas. I went inside and decided later to call the gas company about the smell. When I called they freaked and connected me with their emergency services people who told me someone would be out within the hour.
They were. They guy dug up the side yard and put in a new meter and a new thing on the side and a new thingie on the other side. He had to leave the hole there because the ground (under Nolan's room) was saturated with the natural gas and needed to aerate and because the other crew from the gas company would need to come out later (within 45 days) to put in place a new line from the street to the meter. The guy then asked if he could come in and turn on our heater and water heater for us. He looked at our heater and said it would start itself because it was an electric ignition heater. Then, he red-flagged our water heater and refused to light it. It was out of city code.
Heh? It was just installed eight weeks ago. When it was installed we had to put a new valve on it to bring it to city code. We only complained a little, but we did it because we had to. We would have complained a little more with other things we would have needed, but there was never any mention of them. Apparently we needed a drip pan under the water heater and our exhaust flue was non-compliant. OK, the flue, we kind of knew about. We had to call them out on that after the put the water heater in to fix it, which they said they couldn't understand how it could be an issue. Duh, they never did it in the first place.
Then, the gas guy came into the family room and looked at the wall heater and told us he wouldn't light it and wasn't going to report it because he would have had to shut off all the gas to the house because that wasn't in compliance either. It didn't have a shut-off valve and that is a big no-no. Holy crap.
Travis called the plumber who did the warranty work on the water heater and asked him to come out and fix the flue (again) and give us a quote on the drip pan. He asked them to come out that day. They put him off. They also never called the next day, like he said he would. So, not only does R&M Plumbing do crappy warranty work, they are liars who don't return phone calls either.
We called out another plumber whose ad said they specialize in wall heaters and gas lines. Ahh, someone who knew what they were talking about. We like Bennett Plumbing. Call them, they are nice. They gave us a quote to repair everything on the water heater, the new shut-off valve and the new wall heater we were going to need. Yes, that's right, new heater. Our bill at that point was roughly $1500.
The next day the plumber and another guy (presumably another plumber) came to remove the heater. They had all kinds of problems and they found more issues as well. Apparently the dumbasses who put the wall heater in connected it to the gas line with a 1/2 inch aluminum pipe. I guess that is a massive issue. Then, the dumbasses put the wall heater in place, they framed around it, then they put up the sheetrock on top of that. Of course, none of that was in code either.
New estimate- $1857
Now, tomorrow is the day the heater comes. It hasn't been that bad thus far without it. It was a little extra chilly yesterday, when Nolan and I were sick.
Yes, that's right. Sick on top of everything else.
So, if you were wondering why I hadn't blogged for a while- I've been otherwise occupied. And I've missed you.