The Pernot Family

When we were looking at purchasing this house, the realtor made a big deal about the fact that although the house was on oil heat, there was natural gas at the road. We called the gas company as soon as we closed on the house, to begin the conversion to gas. It all happened so quickly.

The gas company, National Grid, came out on a sunny day and put on quite a performance for the children with their drills and excavators. They had to drill under the road and our yard. It was all very exciting. They even let the children sit in the construction equipment and survey all the work. They said they would come back and place the meter and give the approval for use once the heating company had done their work on the inside and run a gasline to the exterior of the house.

The previous owners, the Briggs, had already received a quote from Holbrook Heating for a top-of-the-line, efficient furnace with Wi-Fi blah blah blah. I called Holbrook to ask about the quote and to see what else they offered. I barely got through my first sentence when the receptionist said if they had written the quote in the past 3 months then they would still honor the price. I was shocked because the price seemed so very low for everything they had committed to doing on the paperwork the Briggs had left with us. I didn't argue with her, but immediately set up a time to have the job done.

"The job" consisted of the removal and disposal of the old oil furnace, the installation of the new natural gas furnace and a Wi-Fi controlled thermostat, coordination with the gas company to drill and place the line from the road to the house, setting up a meter, and running an extra gas line for my dryer. It was a big job.

The day arrived and the crew from Holbrook was stunned at the size of our home and was unsure of how this particular furnace they brought to install would heat the entire house. Apparently, the quote the Briggs received was given as a favor by the owner of the company...to help sell the house and give any potential buyers the opportunity to see that it was indeed possible to convert to natural gas.

THEY NEVER ACTUALLY CAME TO THE HOUSE TO SEE WHAT KIND OF WORK NEEDED TO BE DONE.

The owner of the company was called and he arrived within the hour, as the workers removed the old furnace and tried to figure out how the small unit they brought would be installed. The owner of Holbrook was embarrassed and frustrated that things had turned out this way, but had brought with him a much larger and more efficient furnace to replace the other that was promised in the estimate. He was too kind and said that because the quote was his mistake, he would give us the upgrade for free. The only issue was that this particular furnace needed a great deal of air flow and they needed to place new return venting inside and venting going outside the house through a basement window. We quickly agreed, as it was November and they had already removed the oil furnace, our only source of heat for the entire house. They worked all day. The children and I stayed huddled in the school room with blankets and a small electric space heater that Matt had purchased for the occasion. By 8pm, the gas company had still not come to place and approve the meter...no heat in the house for us.

Holbrook had emergency electrical heaters sent to the house with the promise that they would return as early as possible in the morning to finish the job with National Grid. It was a cold, cold night. We slept in the school room in a pile of blankets. It took most of the next day for Holbrook and National Grid to coordinate their efforts. The approval was given. The meter was placed. The furnace was turned on. The bill was paid. Holbrook also drained the underground oil tank and credited us for the fuel they extracted. They had capped off the oil pipe in the basement and cautioned us to get the oil tank "taken care of" as soon as the snow melted.

We spent the winter in comfort. The house smelled less and less of oil every day, with heating bills that rivaled the bills we had back in Rochester for a house that was 1/3 this size. I was thrilled. Also, my dryer was up and running and I no longer had to freeze dry clothes on the line outside or up in the attic. Life was good.

The snow started melting and Matt and I began our discussions about what to do with the underground tank. We had no knowledge of where it was exactly or what it would take to remove it or even what size it was. We had some neighbors who had "abandoned" their oil tanks by filling them with stones and sand. They suggested we do the same, but Matt and I knew it would be impossible to ever sell this house again with an abandoned oil tank on the property. Real estate is a big deal and we had been bit too hard on our last home. We went online and did some Googling (bad decision). Horror stories about people who removed oil tanks and had to pay upwards of $15,000 to the DEC for spilled oil, contaminated ground, and remediation services. We simply did not have this type of money lying around. Especially because we need a newer, larger car for our growing family...and a fireplace for this home that loses power when the wind blows.

So, we did what we usually do when we are faced with a difficult decision: we prayed. I prayed that the oil tank would disappear all by itself. Matt prayed that it wouldn't collapse until he had come to a rational, God-inspired decision about what to do with the tank.

We make a good team.

We decided, after many months, that the job was just too big for us. There were too many unknowns. We were terrified of being sued by the DEC for a spill that may or may not be there. But the knowledge that any potential future owner could ask us to have the tank removed before sale anyway...well...the deal was sealed. We would hire a company to remove the tank and pray that when they tested the soil, it would come back clean.

Matt called the DEC and made a spread sheet on Excel (this is one of his most endearing qualities) of all the companies that were suggested for tank removal. He made dozens of phone calls and sent many e-mails. I sat here and prayed that the oil tank would still disappear by itself. As Matt obtained more information from each company and they made their bids and expressed their concerns, the spreadsheet filled up. I was still praying about the disappearing oil tank.

We settled on a company, OpTech, that was personable and answered every single phone call and question we had. Their bid was the best, and Matt said that the tearful and fearful phone calls I made to poor Dick should have equaled an hour's worth of counseling....which we don't believe will be on the final bill.

This past Tueday, OpTech arrived at 8:10am. Nathan had woken up an hour earlier, throwing up.

I was a wreck with no shower and nerves enough to cause hair loss.

Dick and his crew were professional, clean-cut and kind. They smiled for the children and didn't balk at the 398 pictures we took of them in their machines and with their equipment.

Nathan was so sad that he was missing out on the action that I moved his chair in front of the window so he could see the excavator from his sick bed.

Thomas, attempting to do schoolwork while talking about how he wants to be an excavator when he gets bigger. This is a huge change, since he originally wanted to be a tank engine.

As it turns out, the tank was a 500 gallon "home-job" that laid 7 feet down, parallel to the foundation near the bay window, under a flower garden. The oil line from the tank to the basement was on the bottom of the tank, ran through the foundation and up through the poured concrete in our basement. It was a much larger job than we had initially anticipated. Dick and his crew didn't even break a sweat. They came to the door and cautioned that home-jobs tended to be a little bit more shoddy and that a leak was more of a possibility with this new information.