The past week has proven to be a bit of a disaster, which may be the universe’s means of equalization after a vacation that unfolded seamlessly. Yesterday, William was hit with a violent stomach virus which necessitated a swift departure from school. He appears to have made a full recovery today, yet he is home with his brother in tow as the teachers are on strike and school has been cancelled Wednesday and Thursday. The boys are somewhat pleased by this turn of events, though we shall see if this holds true this afternoon when I plan to assign them some math worksheets. Enforcing the separation of Thomas and Elizabeth appears to reduce the volume somewhat, ensuring a remnant of my sanity.
Then there is the case of my back, which hurts, necessitating zero bending and no running. I will spare you the gory details as I’m trying to block out the memory of three years ago, which involved a severe herniated disc and emergency back surgery. I have an MRI scheduled which will hopefully reveal all.
Yet the most dramatic of incidents occurred Friday morning when I noticed the smell of natural gas in my kitchen. My most beloved object, my Wolf Dual Fuel range was indeed trying to kill me. I immediately phoned the gas company and an inspector was promptly dispatched. He confirmed said leak, and shut off all gas to the premises, rendering us without hot water, yet preventing my imminent departure in a burst of flame.
As I spoke with my plumbing and heating company, I wondered exactly how they intended to extract the range given the impressive 550 lb. weight and the fact that it was wedged in tighter than...insert inappropriate analogy here. I was envisioning the removal of countertops and the gouging of floors. A team of five individuals arrived at my door (apparently my fears were adeptly communicated) armed with sliders, drop cloths and sheets of plywood. After many tense moments, the aforementioned removal, repair and repositioning was complete in a mere four hours. I could breath again, both figuratively and literally.
Fast forward to Saturday evening and recall that is was a long weekend here in Canada. The kids are each glistening in a thick layer of insect repellant and require their respective showers and baths. All faucets are ice cold, ugh. The hot water had been depleted and the boiler system was not restarted resulting in Error Code 14. We contact the emergency plumbing hotline. The on-call plumber, not versed in boiler maintenance and repair, had to attempt to call someone in Germany for guidance who was apparently not picking up their cellphone??? Again, ugh. Sunday morning rolls around and a plumber appears. My husband guides him through the restart procedure with instructions he (being my husband) found on the internet. Crisis averted.
For posterity, I share with you the first image of the kitchen and that of the cruel mistress, my Wolf range.
What a week you've had!! Hopefully the kids and your back are on the mend. And I so very glad you detected the gas leak before anything horrible happened!! At least this is a short week - hope things are better next week.
Posted by: Jen | May 25, 2011 at 04:59 PM
Damn women...you must be exhausted! Hard to believe something of such beauty was such a pain in the a**! Good thing you & your family are safe...next week will be better. ummm where is that gorgeous kettle from?
Posted by: Sundeep @ Designwali | May 25, 2011 at 06:37 PM
Sounds like a bit of a nightmare week indeed! I'm glad crisis was averted with the gas leak though!!
Posted by: Kerry | May 25, 2011 at 07:04 PM
What a lovely kitchen! Good thing you found out about the leak early! Enjoy the lovely day, Kellie xx
Posted by: Kellie Collis | May 25, 2011 at 07:51 PM
She might be cruel, but hot dang, she is gorgeous!!! (c: What a horrible week! You are in desperate need of a good weekend with some good news about your back...here's hoping it's absolutely nothing and you recover quickly, right? (c:
Posted by: Aubrey | May 26, 2011 at 08:27 AM
Your week sounded interesting and full of adventure. I can relate to back issues, after being injured in a car accident by a drunk driver, disc in my neck were herniated.
AS for you kitchen, OMG! I LOVE your range {even though it was trying to kill you} Plumbers and gas leaks -sheesh!
Posted by: barbara@hodge:podge | May 26, 2011 at 11:46 AM
oh geebee!! What a stressful week. It can only get better and the good news is you detected the leak before it got worse. LOVE the kitchen. haha we are honestly design kindred spirits..I have a similar range hood 'look' ordered :)
Posted by: Melissa | June 02, 2011 at 12:04 AM
Very lucky the leak was fixed in time! Gret kitchen by the way, can we get more photos?
Posted by: hot Water Installation | July 04, 2011 at 12:07 AM