Nine days of ingenuity

From March 9th to 17th we had nine days that we will remember for quite some time. In a nutshell what happened was that the gas line into the house leaked and was in essence "broken." In a lot more than a nutshell we had, thanks to a temporary albeit smaller line from our gas company, over a week of just barely hot water for 4 hours in the morning and 4 right before bedtime and 16 hours of low heat (it got pretty cold inside by the ninth day---maybe low 60s). All in all the gas company was great, as they had to:

1st) fashion a temporary line into the house, above ground;
2nd) dig a long deep trench from the connection to the house by the west side door, all the way out, across the parking lot and into the meters (which are hidden by a grove of arborvitae trees on the west lawn) to take out the old line;
3) put in the new line, following regs that had changed a bit over the 45 years since the original one was installed.

Our kitchen staff was creative and innovative in preparing meals without ovens; the sisters learned to watch and regulate the 2 small boilers that were able to be used--1/2 the day for water and 1/2 for heat; and we all were given an up-close-and-personal look at what it's like to not have the hot water and the heat that we are used to at our fingertips 24-7.

Here's a look at the work the gas company did to give us a new line. A big thanks to all of them and to our own maintenance staff who went above and beyond, as they do on all our projects.

The new gas line.

The connection to the house.

Crossing the parking lot.

Some of the guys and their equipment.