Thursday, June 24, 2021

PSA----your meter box!

all thats left of the old box!

 happy thursday.....

2 posts in 1 week, i may just become an influencer before the summer is over------haha! i do wish i knew influencing people with your own words would make you a paycheck 11 years ago when i started this blog, but i was a little too early to the game....

now onto why i am here again this week.....

over the last year-ish our lights in the house would flicker off and on randomly----never knew when, didn't last long and honestly (clearly) we blew it off. i did look it up a few times when it was really annoying and found, maybe its a bad bulb, maybe a factory close by sucking all the power (we do have a factory or 2 near by, so we ignored). 

then fall-ish our 6 year old LG (pretty expensive) fridge started freezing up. so we would have to take everything out and put the hairdryer in it to solve the issue of thawing out, then it would stop for a while and then randomly do it again----we have babied it to avoid buying a new thousand-ish dollar fridge. so sunday before we flew out of monday the dang thing froze AGAIN, we took everything out and 'dried" it. i prayed while we were gone it wouldn't act up because sometimes when it does, it leaks and we JUST replaced ALL of the hardwoods in february (thats a story for another day).

so this brings me to tuesday-----the lights flickered A LOT all day! i text brooks midday and told him we needed to figure it out because its getting worse----we had dinner, the boys went to soccer, i vacuumed the sitting room (which is in the front of the house) and then i moved the vacuum to the den, plugged it in, turned it on and it barely had power (hmmmm, thats weird) moved it to the kitchen, plugged it in, turned it on and it barely had power (ugh, super weird) went back to the sitting room, front of the house----full power-----

baylor starts sniffing the stairs immediately (again, weird and note the breaker box in the basement is right under the stairs) i run to the basement to check the breaker box and smell an electrical burning smell as soon as i open the door-----and the hot water heater is blinking and blinking and blinking. i call brooks in a panic----he rushes home, starts flipping breakers---- i then notice the pool is on but it is not running, about the same time he flips the ac breaker and the ac unit starts screeching (brit is in panic mode more than me at this point)----brooks shuts it all off and calls the ac company--- i will be respectful and not name them because they were supposed to call us back yesterday morning and come yesterday afternoon to check and we haven't heard from them (not this issue---moving on). 

brooks calls a soccer dad that does electrical----he comes and notices there is no electricity to the breaker box----they go check the meter/power box and it is fried! you can smell the burnt wires, whatever you call all of that....so 930 tuesday night in rolls 2 energy united trucks---they tried to get us a new box but being after hours of most places there were none, so the guy turned the transformer off and said it could not be turned on until there was a new box....

so-----my dad just moved out of the detached garage apartment behind the house about a month ago----that unit has its own water, hot water and power (its now the busy bs home) so the kids and i slept in there on busy bs mattresses (not for adults usage, i found). we hooked up a tv, brushed our teeth and said thanks for the new busy bs home!

home of the busy bs!

by 720 yesterday morning we had a guy here with a new box and we had power (complete power) to the WHOLE house by 845! the pool works, the ac works, the FRIDGE is working! the power guys said it could have been "going bad" for a while and the flickering was it sparking, trying to reconnect itself. he also noted that it could have been causing appliances to not work to the full potential (again---the FRIDGE issue?? time will tell) (note: this is the same electrical box installed when grandbob built this house in 1972)----the power guys said they have much more high tech/safer boxes nowadays! which we are now the proud owners of!

*****a few blessings:

-we still have our home---it did not burn down!

-we still have our home and it did not burn down while we were out of town last week!

-the guys that came tuesday night and yesterday morning (all of them-soccer dad included)---were patient, kind and helpful!

-we possibly don't need a new fridge now!!

-the garage apartment---is practice for tiny home living (that will happen one day) 

-all of the other appliances and electrical seem to be functioning completely normal and probably better!

-the timing in every piece of this (although it was not an ideal situation) was PERFECT!

NOW lets not talk about the waterline that busted yesterday, we had to then shut the water off and the 3 amigos (brooks, bryson and papaw) had to fix last night at dark------(insert eye roll)! 🙄

missing one of the amigos!

so heres my PSA: 

i encourage you if  have flickering lights to check your meter/power box!

i encourage you if you have an older home to open your box and make sure things look normal! old wires, odd smells, things not fully connected----call your power company!

also, note that you more than likely own the meter/power box attached to your house (therefore it is yours to replace), but it is "managed" by the power company (speaking for energy united). 

as always i appreciate the love and support on this page----its clear its summer since i have a free mind and time to blog about things that i hope help someone along the way of life!

much love, alysha 




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