So just when you think you're on the home stretch in a building project, a new wrinkle comes up.  As most of you know, I'm entering the final stages of a very long building project with my girlfriend.  This week, we're getting the hot water heater (a tankless Takagi) and I was getting the space cleared for it and making sure we'd be ready when it arrived.  Much to my surprise, I noticed on Saturday that the gas meter was...gone.

Now, the meter itself has been replaced by a bar that blocks up the city and house side of the gas line, so we were sure it was a PG&E thing.  I called them and they confirmed that they had removed it at our request.  I assured the woman on the phone that no one who was authorized to do that would have done that and could they please give me a new one.  She said that wouldn't be a problem and gave me a number to call.  So off I went.  If Dante were alive today, there would be a level just above the lake of ice where you die and are convinced you lived a good life and had to call a large corporation trying to straighten out your record.

So I finally reached voicemail in their phone system and left a message, a human could not be reached.  The next day, I received a call back telling me that the reason that the meter was removed was because we hadn't used the gas for over a year.  OK.  I explained the situation to the guy on the phone and he told me to call their main number.  I explained that they had sent me to him, but he claimed there was nothing he could do.  Back to the main line.

The very nice woman who answered this time said she couldn't tell me much about the account because I wasn't the name on it and there was now a flag on the account.  Great.  So now I have my girlfriend call.  When she calls, they tell her the meter was removed a year ago when we began digging.  Ugh.

So now we have to have the city come out and reinspect the lines that have already been inspected so they can sign off so PG&E can replace a meter that they removed for a reason they can't confirm on a date they can't confirm.

As many times as you do construction, you never learn every trick.  The other important lessson for those not in the field is that construction is about a quarter jumping through hoops, half finding out what the hoops are, and a quarter actual work.