Thursday, June 9, 2011

NYR 6-8-11 - the gas man cometh

Yesterday in my baking frenzy, a gas inspector showed up at my apartment. The doorman told me he was coming and checking all the apartments, so I assumed it was legitimate. He had the little meter thing that pegged out if it detected gas. We have a gas range and a gas water heater. The gas to the range didn't peg out but the water heater connection did. Turns out we have a gas leak! So he shut off the gas heater, which left us with our little electric heater which contains enough water for each of us to take a nice, 2-minute shower before we run out of hot water.

I also got a lecture about having the water heaters in a wooden closet. I told the gas inspector that the embassy rented the apartment for us and that I had no authority to remove the closet doors. (Plus there are vents inside the closet that vent out to the outside, so I don't think there's really any risk.)

While he was writing up his report, I got nervous that this could be some sort of scam so I called our maintenance contact at the embassy to let him speak directly to the gas inspector. He told the inspector that the embassy would send a contractor out to repair the problem, so the inspector left and told me he'd be back for a re-inspection.

Very.Serious.Business.

Well let me tell you that you don't get a maintenance issue resolved with the embassy any faster than when you cry "gas leak".

At 4:45pm, the maintenance contact from the embassy showed up with the contractor to review the problem and I was promised that the contractor would return on Wednesday morning at 9am.

And guess what? He was here today at 9am as promised.

I really thought all he was going to do was change the connection from the heater into the gas line, but I heard all this dismantling going on and before I knew it, he'd taken the whole closet apart.

Apparently only I thought the "no wooden closet" requirement was stupid. Either that, or they know the gas inspection is serious business and that we won't pass the re-inspection with the wooden closet still there since it was officially in the report. Maybe the gas inspector cuts off the gas after a second fail???

The gas has still not been turned back on because the embassy guy has to come tomorrow to inspect it. Then I guess we wait for the gas man to come back for the "real" inspection. But in the meantime I can take a shower and run the dishwasher at the same time.

For hopefully correcting my gas leak but leaving me with two naked, ugly water heaters just sitting there looking hideous, I am partly truly thankful.

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