Nicor, Nora & New Dinnerware

April 12, 2010

Quite a day!

My dad had stopped by the house the night before and sworn he smelled gas again. In a repeat of the previous week, I foolishly doubted his precocious proboscis (shoulda learned my lesson the first time around) but vowed to call Nicor in the morning anyway -- just to reassure him that his doubts were unfounded.

So I did, and they said they would send someone over "right away". Then they claimed someone had come but no one was home (okay, not only was I there, but both of my North Shore Electric guys were also in the house, to boot) and they didn't have anyone free for a couple more hours.

Meanwhile, got a text from my pal Katie that she had an entire extra dinnerware set on hand and could bring it over that morning. I was super psyched! Awesome housewarming gift!!

Eniz and Casey, my electricians, brought me up to speed on some recent house developments, and then I did a little gardening. Finally, the Nicor guy showed. I had been praying for Gary again, Peter's brother-in-law. Instead, a middle-aged guy with a major humor deficiency came to my door.

First thing he did was ask to check the gas meter. I led him to the back of the house where Casey was installing my outdoor porch light. I told Casey I had a guy over checking for more gas leaks and he threw up his arms and mimicked a soldier taking cover, then called jokingly to the Nicor guy, "The house gonna blow up? Should I run for it??"

This guy didn't crack a tenth of a smile. Instead, he turned to Casey and began to deliver a somber speech about how if the house blows up it is not Nicor's responsibility, the onus is on me, the homeowner to keep my house safe for hired working people, and furthermore...blah blah blah. Oh my gosh, I'm sure Casey regretted ever trying to throw a joke out. He was almost rolling his eyes at me in annoyance by the time the guy abruptly ended his rehearsed patter and turned on his heel to enter the basement through the garden door. Jeez Louise!

Downstairs, he ran his little gas leak register up and down all the pipes. I couldn't stand the silence. I went upstairs, since he clearly wasn't the communicative type, and Eniz and Casey started asking me a question about which outlets I wanted wired to a central switch. Suddenlythe Nicor guy's shrill voice sounded from downstairs, in a somewhat-demanding tone, "Miss! Miss!"

I looked at the guys, shrugged my shoulders and kind of rolled my eyes in a "Whatevah" gesture, then headed down the basement steps. Suddenly, behind me, Eniz and Casey silently materialized, arms crossed. The guy turned to speak to me and noticed my electricians, both tall guys, standing and watching wordlessly. This shaped up his attitude immediately.

He pointed out two areas which were, indeed, leaking small amounts of gas (Dad, I will NEVER doubt your nose again!) and told me he would fix them. The job would take about an hour, and I needed to stay on-site and sign him off when he was done.

Then he began to make a random laundry list of general complaints to me about the basement. I don't know if he was even discussing issues that concern Nicor, though he acted mighty imperious about pointing them out. His Filipino accent was very thick and he spoke quite fast so it was difficult to fully understand him, but he said something along the lines of, "This type vent for dryer, this not legal no more, you have to have plumber come and change to aluminum one, you have to do RIGHT AWAY!"

Eniz and Casey, muttering behind me: "You don't need a plumber for that."

Me, to myself, but speaking in the direction of the Nicor guy: "Okay, so I'll get an aluminum dryer vent at Home Depot and install it myself..."

Nicor guy: "NO, must be done by plumber! Cannot do yourself! And this exhaust pipe, go here from water heater to furnace, this angle not correct! Must be angled down here at end, you have to have plumber do that too RIGHT AWAY because it not up to code!"

Eniz and Casey, muttering behind me: "All you need to do is take out the last junction."

Me, to myself, but speaking in the direction of the Nicor guy, "Okay, gotta remember this, take out last junction..."

Nicor guy: "NO, must be done by plumber! Cannot do yourself!"

Anyway, after a bit of this back and forth, my electricians looked like they had had enough. The Nicor guy set to work doing his fixes and they completely overrode his previous comments (thereby earning some surreptitious dirty looks from him) by offering some great suggestions on how to deal with my basement issues without necessarily involving a plumber right off the bat. Have I mentioned how great these guys are yet??

Anyway, they returned to work upstairs, and the Nicor guy continued fixing the two leaks. Meanwhile, Katie and her sweet daughter Nora arrived at the house. Katie was kind enough to stop at a Starbucks en route and came armed with coffee. Crap, that reminds me, I still owe her two bucks!

Anyway, Ayize was thrilled to see his little gal pal, and they clasped hands and headed into the garden together like a little old couple.

These happy golden years!

"Okay, done with the garden! We're heading in!"

The kids had a grand time cooking in the kitchen.

Nora was kind enough to share her breakfast egg...

...while Ayize hoarded the donuts for himself.

It's...

...so hard...

...to say...

...goodbye!

(But a little air kiss helped to ease the pain.)

More kisses; it was a veritable love-fest on my front lawn!

Then Nora and Katie were off.

Thank you for the dinnerware, dudettes! We will think of you each evening as we sit down to eat from this day forward!!

The Nicor guy finished up and I signed him off. Then I took Ayize home to nap.

Mom and Dad were home for lunch, so they stayed with him and I headed to Home Depot.

I returned with a new light fixture for the back porch (not pictured, cuz I handed it to Casey the minute I arrived, since he was all set up and ready to install and wire it by then), plus two cute purple-pot planters for my window ledges, more safety tape to double up my front porch stair treads, and a roll of aluminum tape.

My poor new plants. They looked so big in Home Depot, but buried behind my giant front hedges, you can hardly see them!

North Shore Electric's van, faithfully parked in my drive every day. Such a sight for sore eyes! And all the advice about my basement that day was much appreciated. The guys even gave me a quick tutorial on how to reenforce my pipe junctions with aluminum tape to contain my conditioned air and save on heating and cooling costs. And they installed a carbon monoxide detector right near the water heater and furnace, to verify the exhaust pipes were not leaking after a "quick fix" to correct for the improper angling the Nicor guy had noted.

As if all that wasn't enough, they came to the rescue AGAIN that afternoon! At 3:30 I had a guy coming over to give me an estimate on insulating the attic. He was a very nice man and attempted to hardly raise an eyebrow as I -- in usual form -- popped up his ladder and peeked around my attic for the first time myself, gleefully exclaiming, "Ooh! I have an attic!" (although my electricians stifled giggles at my by-now expected behavior), but his estimate was extremely high -- he quoted $2000! He packed up his ladder and left, leaving behind a fancy-schmancy full-color folder jam-packed with information about tax redemptions and heating and cooling savings that his company claimed went hand-in-hand with blow-in insulation.

The door had hardly shut behind him when my guys popped their heads out of adjacent rooms to warn me, in no uncertain terms, that the guy was a freaking shyster.

"But other people I know are being quoted about this amount," I protested.

"Yeah, everyone is being quoted these amounts," they said. "The Obama tax credits have got cheaters coming outta the woodwork. And this guy didn't even say one word about the other attic issues, right? Ventilation and all that? His quote was JUST for the blow-in stuff?? C'mon!"

Here I'd been about to shake hands with this first guy and drop a deposit. I mean, not exactly...but his quote was par for what other home-owning friends around me were recently getting. I silently thanked God, Buddha, Allah, et. al. once again for sending these guys my way, then thanked them aloud for the advice, and finally, resolved to do some more research, get some more estimates, and take my time choosing an insulation company. And thank Gaia I did!!!

But more on that amazing story to come...

My phone rang, and it was my Mom. Ayize was up.

Headed home, handed him a snack, and his godmother Diana pulled up to our house as if on cue. We headed to downtown Evanston to pick up Chipotle's for dinner (yum, yum) via Hanson Roofing (I was dropping a check) and passed this grounded caboose on the way. Ayize was so excited!

"Boose, Mama! Boose!"

We parked across from the Orrington Hotel and I pointed out this crane to Diana because of its funny name. So then he changed his mantra to, "Boom, Mama! Boom!"

Anyway, we took our food to go, enjoyed an immensely-satisfying meal back at the house, got little man to bed, and watched the awesome Liam Neeson flick, Taken.

A very nice end to a very nice day!