Sweatin' it out Labor Day weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was probably one of the most memorable holiday weekends that I can think of to this date. Hopefully we will not have another weekend like this again!

It started Saturday afternoon. I had just woken up from a nap at 3pm and noticed that the power had turned off. I went downstairs to find Alfonso looking for flashlights. Alfonso attempted to reset the main breaker, but nothing happened. Meanwhile I called the power company and reported the power outage. Apparently we were the only house in our area to have an outage. Meanwhile, it was getting seriously hot in our house. This past week we've had a heat wave with the temperature in the triple digits. Our house was beginning to feel like a sauna. Poor Christopher was stripped down to his diaper and rocking in his swing sleeping peacefully.

The power company said that they would come to our home as soon as possible (we reinforced that we had an infant) but it could take as long as 48 hrs. Without electricity and no air conditioning, we were in a jam. Alfonso called up our good friends Diego and Julie. They said that it was okay for us to spend the night, but they had guests visiting from Philly. We would work it out since they also have an office and we could just sleep in the office.

We spent Saturday night at Diego and Julie's. We brought out pillow top and laid it out on the floor of the office room. Christopher had his own little area off to the side and fell asleep by 10 pm. Meanwhile Alfonso was calling air conditioning companies to come and repair the AC (we believed that the AC unit was linked to our loss of power). Since it was a holiday weekend, we were having difficulty reaching technician's. We were able to reach a few companies, but they would not be able to come until Monday.

Sunday morning Alfonso went back to the house and the power had been restored. He made more phone calls to technician's, but they would not be able to come until Monday. Since we purchased the house less than a year ago, we had a one year insurance that would cover us if anything went wrong in the house. Alfonso called the insurance company, but that policy had been cancelled the day we moved in. Alfonso was able to find the company on our paperwork and left a message with the insurance company, but we did not hear from them until the next day (Monday).

Alfonso had bought two fans from Walmart (Home Depot was sold out) for almost $200. After a couple of hours of sitting in 90 degree air that was being blown around by the fans, we decided to spend another night at our friends house.

Christopher sweatin' it out




Monday afternoon the AC technician visits the house. We had a bad capacitor but he was able to replace it in five minutes. Total cost was $300. Now we have electricity and AC!

We ate dinner at Diego and Julie's and then start to pack up to go back home. Earlier in the day Alfonso had a premonition that what if the electricity and AC were not working again. I reassure him that everything should be fine...

Since we had taken seperate cars, I was the first to reach the house. When I pulled up into the driveway, I am pushing and repushing the garage door remote. Nothing is happening. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I open the front door and sure enough we do not have electricity.

"Alfonso we have a problem..."

Once again I am on the phone with Edison. I am on hold for over fifteen minutes when a second call comes in. It is the Edison repairman asking if we have no power again. Indeed we do not have any power, and yes we have tried resetting the main breakers. He will be by shortly..

At 8:30pm the Edison repairman shows and determines within five minutes that we need a new breaker. He advises us to find an electrician to replace the breaker. The repairman leaves as quickly as he came.

There is an electric repairman van that is always parked on the street a couple of houses down from us. We walk over to the house and ring the doorbell. A young guy without a shirt answers us from his balcony. "Excuse us, do you know whose van this is?" He answers that it is his. "We know that it is late, but we really need your help." We briefly explain to him what is going on and he says that he will be down in a couple of minutes.

He takes a look at our main breakers and confirms that we need a new one. By this time it is 9pm. Alfonso runs to Home Depot (we aren't sure if they are open especially since it's Labor Day weekend). At 10pm Alfonso returns (he forgot his wallet the first time around) and the guys set to work replacing the breaker. By 10:30pm we have power and we are up and running. Eternally grateful for our neighbor we wrote him a check.

We slept almost 12 hrs that night. Now we are working on working on getting the reimbursement through the insurance company.