The Gas Leak

A few weeks ago I started noticing a "gas" smell.  I didn't think about it because I was doing laundry and our dryer is gas.  I just thought maybe it was turning on and that is where the smell was coming from. 

Well, a few days went by and I finally decided to tell Luke.  I figured he might want to know...(hindsight:  tell husband asap when you smell gas)  I finally told him the Sunday before Thanksgiving (the 25th).  The breaking point was when I pulled a load out of the dryer and it smelled HORRIBLE.  It was a gassy, gasoline, petroleum-like smell.  It was pretty bad.  I had him smell it and he may have freaked out a bit.  He was extremely nervous to even walk down the stairs and turn on the light..even a little spark could make it blow.

Not much scares Luke, but when it comes to our family and our safety?  Don't mess with it.

Anyway, he smelled it too, so we tested the area with some soapy water.  Nothing.  We knew that if we both smelled it, there was a good indication that there was something leaking and we weren't dreaming.  (Although, with that much gas in the air..maybe we were!  ;)

Well, much to my disappointment, I didn't do laundry for a few days.  We waited for my dad to get here to help us out.  (Not sure if they started working on it on Tuesday or Wednesday...anyway...)
So, my dad uses some 'gunk' he has that is supposed to be similar to the soapy water, but work better.  Nothing.  No leak, no bubbles, nothing.  So, he made sure that the gas was off and started vaccuuming and taking the dryer apart.  After he was done, it was clean as a whistle, but I could still smell a wift of gas every once in a while. 

I started up laundry and still smelled it, but not too bad.  Fast forward to today.  I smelled it again.  After talking to my friend that is on the fire department, he said to call the fire department vs. the gas company.  The fire dept. would be there within minutes and the gas company would take a while.  Note to self:   call the gas company or a plumber that can take care of gas leaks.  The fire department shut down ALL of the gas for the house.  Then we couldn't get it turned back on until the gas company ok's everything. 

The gas company came out and they noticed that the leak wasn't just from the dryer.  He said that there was some significant leaking somewhere and we needed to get the plumber out asap. 

As I type this(several days ago) , the plumber is here.  He is changing out all of the valves and shutting down gas to the outside grill (that we don't use anyway), to our fireplace (it's just a gas igniter to start the logs), and to an old stove that we use at Holidays. 

After several hours, the plumber was able to get everything taken care of.  He called the gas company and told them to come out and check. 
THEN he went outside and noticed that the gas pressure wasn't staying up.  He freaked and went through every square inch of our basement and at the last possible moment, he figured out that the gas was leaking from inside the wall...and it had been doing it for a while. 

Anyway, long story short...things were fixed in time and the gas company turned our gas back on and we were able to leave for vacation on time.  Glorious!