The House Didn't Explode

Monday was an exciting day in the Bimmer-McTatty household.

The gas company had contractors out at our house to work on gas lines and to move our gas meter from inside the house to outside the house.

These people (yep, my irritation here is obvious) have been working on gas lines in our neighborhood for months. MONTHS. The main street into our neighborhood was closed. Our sidewalks have holes. My yard has holes. The street has holes and piles of dirt and pavement. There's even a Biffy at the end of our street.

YET MY RETAINING WALL STILL STANDS.

VICTORY.

I was really worried about it last week when a guy came around to make an appointment to move our meter. He was so nonchalant about it too.

Me: What are you doing to my house? You're not going to touch my retaining walls or plants, right?

Him: We're moving your gas meter outside. Where do you want it?

Me: I have options?

Him: Yeah, anywhere outside.

Me: Just don't touch my retaining walls or plants.

Him: Ok. We have to dig up your yard to get around the tree.

Me: Where? Will you put the dirt back in the holes? Do I have to replant the grass? You're not going to touch my retaining walls, right? I don't want to replace them.

Him: Neither do we.

Me: Ok. Just don't touch my stuff. Is my house going to explode?

Him: It shouldn't.

That wasn't very comforting. Because I watch the news... Houses have exploded from gas line maintenance not very far from our house. I didn't want to be the people whose dog flew 50 feet from the house and ended up doing a news story from the vet's office.

He then marked out two spots to dig in our front yard with spray paint and I shit my pants just a little. THEY WERE HUGE MARKINGS. From me intently watching our neighbor's yard, I knew that they would dig exactly where the paint was. And some of that paint was right next to our sidewalk. Ugh.

So Monday morning came and I grabbed a box and started to throw stuff in it just in case our house exploded. I grabbed necessities. Phone charger, crochet hooks, dog leash, a sweater, my Kindle. And put it on the back porch if I had to run for cover.

They ended up putting the meter on the front of the house - had they put it on the side they would have had to dig up our sidewalk and then they would replace that in a few WEEKS. WEEKS. So I said no to that. Plus with our luck and Minnesota winters I figured Bimmerman or I would take it out with the snowblower at some point. Then our house probably would explode.

So now I just have to wait for my plant outside to cover it up next year. The guy that came and filled in the holes was pretty awesome, they set aside my pine bark mulch and then instead of just leaving dirt they replaced the pine bark mulch on top. I'm sure I didn't have to complain about it because a previous person had already done that. SO, now I just have one random dirt patch that needs to be seeded.

Phew. Worries about exploding houses are over. Onto the next project....