Pole problems, what else is new?

It’s been almost 3 weeks since the triplets, Jay, and I all caught terrible colds, but we’re finally on the mend! I’ve spent a lot of my couch time picking out the fun stuff for #WildernestBuild such as light fixtures, faucets, and vanities for the bathrooms. Our excavator has been working on our septic, retaining walls, and now our driveway area, and our kitchen cabinets were scheduled to be delivered today!⁣⁣

Buuuut it’s October. October in New England always brings Nor’Easters with it, which are like mini hurricanes mixed with snow in the colder months. Octobers at Wildernest also mean one of our 6 telephone poles/wires will likely be demolished by the fallen trees that accompany them. Just like how Thanksgiving is in November and Christmas is in December, the Janaks celebrate October with no power and 85 phone calls to the power company to fix their shit.⁣⁣

Today we celebrated with a massive pine tree split in half taking out a section of our wiring and another weird doohickey that’s probably important. We also celebrated by having to postpone our kitchen delivery and by telling the excavator to go home.⁣⁣

Anyone who has read my blog over the past 3.5 years knows how much of a hassle we’ve been through with these poles. It cost us $16,000 to put 6 of them up our 900’ driveway (underground was too risky due to bedrock and too costly) and took almost a year of constant phone calls to our electric company for them to install them so we could start our build. When we finally got them in, a Nor’Easter took half of them out just a few days later.⁣⁣

Every October since then has been the same, multiple times! Thankfully, part of the $16,000 was an acquisition fee that makes all 6 poles and wires the responsibility of the electric company so we aren’t stuck paying out of pocket to fix them. ⁣

Despite the frustration, I love picturing our triplets having campouts in the living room by the gas fireplace, and playing endless board games by candlelight just like I did as a kid when these things happened. ⁣⁣

But, just in case these outages are 8 days of cold showers and frostbite long, we did wire the house for a generator. Just don’t tell them that ;)