Homeownership
I am awake. I have been awake since 4AM. Apparently the water meter in my house wanted to malfunction at 4AM today. Like it was on a timer.
It sounded like the entire place was vibrating....except I didn't know where it was coming from. I checked the entire house and stared to freak out as it got louder in the basement. When all else fails, call home. My parents could hear it over the phone and then my dad said he would come over. He located the sound. A teeny tiny gauge on the water meter wasn't spilling and it's sticking motion was vibrating throughout all the pipes in the house (why the floor was shaking on the 1st floor). Once the water was turned off the noise stopped.
I called the water department and someone will be out between 8 and 12 tomorrow. In the meantime, we have no water....unless we want to turn it on and listen to something that sounds like it's going to explode.
At least it's nothing serious...and something I don't have to pay for...other than the loss of sleep and a few skipped heartbeats. Lucky we have at least 4 flushes before we would need to turn the water back on. :)
MYSTERY NOISE UPDATE:
The water department showed up early this morning and we tried several times to flush out the air in the line. Up and down, up and down turning off all the faucets. I got my exercise today. Unfortunately it did not work. He said it sounds isolated to my recycling line, but that he couldn't do anymore because of plumbing unions and taking work away from them. So I call the plumber and since it's the weekend there is a $95 service charge. The plumber siad I could turn off all the valves one at a time to see when the noise stops. But even at that point I wouldn't know what to do. So, since I have to have water and couldn't stand the noice all weekend long I said come over. And in like 2 seconds he knew it was a toilet...the one on the first floor. Something with the water level overflowing a pipe in the tank and causing the bulb to sit higher than it should have. He showed me what he did with a few turns of the screw. While he was there I had him solve the mystery of the light water pressure in there as well. Turns out it was some calcified deposits getting in the way of the water stream. At least I know what to look for if that ever happens again.
I am going to write a book about homeownership and the little things you learn along the way. I'll let you know my progress at the end of 2008.