Almost the entire time that Greg and I have lived in our house we have had problems with our electricity. I honestly don't remember when it all started, but it's been quite the adventure. I think it was the first summer we were married, we finally figured out how to work the swamp cooler, and then one rainy/lightning-y afternoon, lighting struck, and we think it hit our swamp cooler, because it went out...sort of. It was at half power. But not only that...but half the power in the entire house. So, the circuit that our swamp cooler, dryer, and stove/oven was out. We didn't know what to do, so we dealt with it. We purchased a toaster oven, and made a lot of crock-pot dinners. I think we ended up calling the power company, and they 'fixed' it.
For a little while. Fast forward to a Christmas...power gets blown again. Greg and his friend Steve go through all of the outlets in the house. They end up fixing a few...so again, our power is 'fixed'.
Again, fast forward a little...something happens...half the power goes out. We try flipping the breaker in the house...nothing works....call the power company, he flips the main switch, and VOILA! It's 'fixed'....So, for the past at least 3 years we've been technically living on half power. When it would go out, we'd go outside and flip the main breaker.
The past year or so it has gotten really bad. There wasn't a set thing that triggered the power outage. Sometimes it was a flip of a light switch, often times it was the stove or the dryer. Sometimes we'd just be sitting eating dinner and it would go out. Luckily we had all our important stuff plugged into the circuit that didn't go out (TV, computers, refrigerator). It was not fun having to shut everything down 2-3 times a day to flip the power. Plus, when you touched the switch it would sizzle and start to smell like something was burning...doesn't sound to pleasant, right? Well, it wasn't....
A couple of weeks ago when I got home from work, I hold my breath as I flipped on the living room light (which is on the bad circuit). Surprisingly it turned on with no problems. AWESOME!! Then I head to the bedroom and go to flip on the light (good circuit)...nothing happens...Okay, weird? maybe the lightbulb is just blown. Go into the bathroom to turn on the light (good circuit) nothing happens...go to turn on my blowdryer (bad circuit) turns right on....totally weird! Everything that was on the Good circuit was now off (yes...that was a night with NO TV OR COMPUTER! :'( and everything on the bad circuit was working...Flip the main breaker...good circuit now works, bad circuit now doesn't! (haha...yes it was great fun!) Flip it again...it's all working.
Next day...problems all over the place. Half the power would go out, greg would kick the box, the other half would go out, and that half would come on. In a way, it was pretty funny, but also very annoying! We would just be sitting there and the power would all go out. NOT COOL! I was so annoyed. So frustrated! I called the city to see what they could do, but apparently they just supply the power, and charge you for it...they don't do anything about it if there's a problem with the box....
So Greg called our landlord and she said to call an electrician. If it was in the box the park would cover it, but if it was in our house, we had to. We knew it was in the box...otherwise it wouldn't have been sparking and sizzling and burning...so we called the dude. Sure enough it was he box....He temporarily fixed it that day, and by the time I got home from work the next day, it was all fixed! They replaced the entire box, and now our power works!!! It is SOOO nice not to have to hold your breath and pray that the power won't go out when you turn on a light (though we both still do...After 2 years of doing that it's hard to not! lol...) It has also been super nice to be able to do all our laundry in just a few hours instead of having to dry things a million times because the power keeps going out!
So we're greatly appreciative to the park for having that fixed, and so fast (despite it technically taking 5 years...) It's nice to have full power in our house, and I hope that we don't have problems with it again anytime soon...It's not fun!!
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