Fireplace update

So. We have no heat and won't until Tuesday. And it's cold. Freezing or below for the next several days. It's supposed to warm up on, you guessed it, Tuesday.

As it turns out, our builder forgot to tell us that in order to get the new pipes in, he would have to cut through our new wood floor. We weren't too crazy about that idea, so we said that we would have to wait for our floor people to cut the hole. He said that was fine, and that he was sorry, but he would have to cut off our gas. So, because we gave the job to someone else, he did. Then he left.

He did this, of course, for our safety. The lack of gas would protect us from the gas leak. Now, remember that for the past several days the builder has known about the alleged gas leak, but didn't think about turning off the gas for our own protection. It was only after we told him that we didn't want him to do any more work for awhile that the leak became important enough to prevent by actually capping off our gas meter and removing about a foot of our pipe - which, I discovered after he left, he took with him.

I was livid, but couldn't stop him. Apparently, says Ian, he has the power to do what he did. As a result, Ian and I are sitting in our living room bundled up. And drinking. I mean, really, what else can you do?

We've worked out our plan of action. The people who laid our floor - and were great - are going come out and give us access to the space under the floor on Tuesday afternoon. We also called a gas guy who has worked for us before - and was great - and he will come out on Tuesday evening to give us heat. He'll also test to see if there ever was a leak. I think the answer to that is a coin toss.

I haven't explained this very well. I'm not sure if that's because my breath is so solid that it's fogging up the laptop screen or that the red wine is doing its job.

Whatever. In the meantime, the fireplace is set. We'll need to plaster the surround, but at least we know now what it's going to look like. Overall we like it. Ian said he likes it well enough that he would do it all again. I said that I think maybe I would rather have taken a trip around the world -- which, given what we've paid for this dang thing at this point, one of us could have done. I would probably like it better if we could turn it on and get a little warmth from it, but oh well.

The really nice thing, though, is that I couldn't be happier. Not with the fireplace, although in reality I do like it. More with guy I share my life with. I can't imagine going through this process with anyone else. With Ian, although it was touch and go around 9:30 this morning, by 10:00 everything was good and we had talked it out and decided on what we were going to do.

Now all that's left to do is to . . . uh . . . drink to our happiness.