Plumbers at work in our front yard. October 13, 2009.
Let me begin by saying that Betsy and I had a wonderful weekend waterfalling in east Tennessee and western North Carolina. We saw several new waterfalls and had a wonderful hike on Friday.
The weather forecast for Saturday night and Sunday was very iffy — there was the possibility of ice, sleet and rain and/or snow. So we decided to come on home Saturday evening instead of traveling on Sunday.
It was after dark when we pulled into the driveway and the first thing we saw was water flowing across the driveway. We both remarked that there must have been a lot of rain, because we hadn’t seen water flowing across the driveway since I built the new wall in the front yard.
HOWEVER …
When Betsy went to check on her bird feeders on the back deck, she noticed that the deck was dry. She then noticed that we had no water in the house. So, flashlight in hand, I checked the front yard and saw water gushing up through the cover of the water meter.
We called the water utility and a man came out to turn off the water and check the problem. He found a crack in the line leading to the house about three inches on our side of the meter (sigh!).
To make a long story short, our friendly plumbers came by Sunday and fixed the line and turned the water back on. They also told me where I could get the tool to turn off the water at the meter. If I do that, any leaks while we’re gone have to be on the utility’s side!
Tags: American Life, Glade, Home
Senior Moments 
December 14, 2009 at 6:10 am |
Oh man I bet that was an expensive repair. Our next door neighbor has a leak but luckily its on the city of tulsa side of the meter. We have frozen water on our street every morning. The City said it will be a month before they can fix it. George you really should have on of those tools to shut the water off. We have one and believe me, when we lost power a couple winters ago due to the ice storm we had to shut the water off to the house to keep from bursting the lines.
December 14, 2009 at 9:09 am |
Wow. It is always something isn’t it????? Glad you had a nice weekend!!!
December 14, 2009 at 9:24 am |
George: Sorry to hear of your water leak, it is very hard to be without water even for a day.
December 14, 2009 at 9:51 am |
Sorry to hear about the pipe George. Glad ya’ll had a good trip tho!
December 14, 2009 at 10:36 am |
Good thing you came home early, George – all that water running across the driveway could have done more damage, had it gone on another day! And think on the bright side – it stayed out of the basement!
December 14, 2009 at 11:55 am |
Just now discovered your other blog. Gosh the water leak is a bad lick. Weather is very iffy around our neck of the woods.
QMM
December 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm |
Boo Hiss!! I am glad you had a good vacation even though the homecoming was not the best. MB
December 14, 2009 at 2:15 pm |
That is not the kind of welcome you want on returning home.At least you had a good time while away,and no flooding in the house.
Blessings,Ruth
December 14, 2009 at 3:00 pm |
Not a good welcome back home.
It’s a good thing you didn’t wait until Sunday to come home.
December 14, 2009 at 3:03 pm |
Water leaks are no fun. Hope it’s permanently fixed.
December 14, 2009 at 4:29 pm |
Tough luck with one waterfall but the others were pretty!!! 🙂
December 14, 2009 at 7:16 pm |
Sorry to hear about that waterpipe leak! But glad you and Betsy had a nice vacation! You two have such a zest for life! 🙂
December 14, 2009 at 9:16 pm |
Oh…too bad about where the leak was located. Seems to always work that way! Nice to know about that tool. I didn’t know you were allowed to do that.
December 14, 2009 at 10:17 pm |
I hate that you came home to that–but at least it wasn’t in your house!
December 14, 2009 at 10:43 pm |
Oh dear! Another project for George. So glad all was well inside.
We always turn ours off when we leave.
December 15, 2009 at 9:33 am |
What a terrible thing to come home to after such a wonderful trip. I am glad it was not any worse or inside your home. Take care and hope you get what you told Santa to bring you.
December 15, 2009 at 11:37 am |
Sorry about the water leak but the weather looks like it is much warmer there than in the mountains and greener
December 16, 2009 at 6:32 pm |
How frustrating! Good that it was ‘fixable’ and that you know how to avoid such leaks in the future 😉
Hugs and blessings,
December 17, 2009 at 12:32 am |
Sure hate surprises like that – especially when they can become quite expensive! Glad all is well and you have a tool to turn things off before you go away again! Take care you two!!