One Very Stressful Day

This is how my day went on Monday...

I left my house in the morning while "Fred" started installing the wood floor in the kitchen.  When I walked in the door one hour later I heard a very loud hissing sound - like a high pressure air leak.  I ran down to the basement where I found "Fred" in my furnace room claiming "I hit a line!"  A line?!  A gas line?  A water line?  He did not know.  I could tell there was a colorless, odorless gas escaping from whatever line he hit - that was slowly filling my basement.  As I started to think about who to call - I began to panic.  I wondered if I should turn off the water or call the fire department.  Should I call Wes?  Should I call a neighbor?  In the meantime "Fred" determined that he had punctured a small copper air conditioner line and that it was releasing freon gas.  Being ignorant about such things...I continued to wonder if we were in some sort of danger or if there was something we needed  to do.  I put in a call to my contractor...no answer.  I called the air conditioner/heating company.  Spoke with an operator who was painfully slow to understand what I felt like was a sort of emergency.  A technician was scheduled for later that afternoon.  Not good enough.  I called them back and asked for a technician to call me ASAP.  In the meantime my neighbor showed up to look at the barstools I was selling.  I was almost in tears and asked him to come check things out.  He put my mind at ease telling me that freon was non-toxic and that we were in no danger.  Whew.  "Fred" cut open the subfloor in the middle of the kitchen and discovered the hole in the pipe.  At least we identified the problem.

Then "Dan" from the a/c place called. (Right about the same time my contractor called to tell me he'd stayed an extra day in the Uintahs  snowmobiling - he wouldn't be coming that day.  Ugh.)  "Dan" wasn't far and was on his way to come and repair the pipe.  He told me to open the windows in the basement and warned me that this was going to be an expensive repair.  To replace the freon would cost me close to $60/lb.  "Dan" finally showed up, looked things over and gave me an estimate.  $1100.  Eleven hundred dollars!!  But what choice did I have?  We had to move forward with the repair so "Fred" could move forward with the wood floor installation.  "Dan" began the repair.

"Dan" was outside working on the air conditioner when he yelled for me to come out.  I ran out to find my sprinkler box completely underwater and water flooding my lawn and pouring into my window well (remember - I had just opened all my windows downstairs to air out the freon gas in my basement!).  Unbelievable! I called Wes and miracle of miracle he answered the phone and quickly told us how to shut off the water to the sprinkler line (if you don't know how to do this, I highly recommend you find out!).  The amazing thing is that the water had probably only been running for about 10 minutes.  If  "Dan" had not been outside working on the air conditioner at that minute - if that water had run for even 10-15 more minutes - we would have had a flooded basement.  Unbelievable!

Once the small flood was under control, "Dan" continued with his repair.  Did I mention that during all of this I kept getting phone calls from my painters, my window guys, Lowes, my counter people and of course...Sarah was at my feet asking for snacks and movies?  I was happy to oblige.  Shortly after, the painters showed up to paint my chosen samples.  Shortly after that my window guys showed up to get started on the trim.  There were so many people that needed my attention - I started to develop a huge headache (that also could have been caused by breathing freon gas all morning!).  "Dan" finished his repair and I paid the whopping bill.  As the busy afternoon of carpooling slowly approached I realized that my contractor had not moved my fridge out of my kitchen into my garage.  As "Fred" was asking me what to do about the hole in the middle of the floor - I started emptying out my fridge into a laundry basket.  I told him to call it day.  I needed to think about things and make some calls.  Then I left to pick up my kids.

"Make some calls" meant calling my dad.  I needed some help!  He advised me to involve "Fred's" liability insurance and possibly my home insurance.  Good idea.  I called "Fred" to let him know what to do.  And I called my insurance agent to get their input as well.

The rest of the day continued without problems and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and outing with Grandparents that I will write about in another post.   I went to bed hoping and praying that Tuesday would be a better day.  And it was.  I got a call from "Fred's" insurance.  They are going to cover the payment in full.

Here are some photos I took for insurance purposes and some remodel updates:

The hole cut in the subfloor (with the partially installed wood floor)

Between the two black pipes you can see the repaired copper pipe.  Before the repair, that line was running up against the subfloor - hence the puncture.

You can see where the pipe was soldered.

The finished wood floor

The cased and trimmed windows

The floor is now ready to be stained. The trim and baseboards go in and then the paint. We are moving along!