Road Work

This morning we were awoken by the dog barking and a wonderful construction crew in the front of our house (we have no front yard, so literally in the front of our house). They were their to dig a bunch of holes to replace all the old lead piping on all the homes that were build before 1971. Of course, our house was on the list. Build in 1890ish, its pretty old.

So I decided why not turn this day into a "school lesson". The kids had a great time. Though we weren't able to actually get close to the hole. We had something even better. One of the holes being dug was directly in front of my window where the laundry room is. The kids had the best seat in the house!!

The guys who were hired to do the work for the town of Johnston were fantastic. They really took the time to answer the questions that the kids had. Even talking to them about odds and ends. I have to say, they really were very sweet. Especially since they were behind schedule due to a pipe that burst filling all of their newly dug holes into mud and mud ponds. The kids (especially Owen and Emma-James) were in love with all the big trucks and the mess the "big boys" got to make. Owen would bring his "pretend" tools down to help and Emma-James couldn't get enough of the "BOYS".

Digging one of the holes on the street (There were about 4)

 

Part of the hole that was dug in front of our laundry room window

 

Owen sitting on my dryer watching the big boys

 

The holes filled in, just about ready for the black top

 

Black top down and the holes covered up. Just in the nick of time too. As soon as this was put down, we ended up getting a storm so severe. The rain came down in sheets and I think it could have been pretty bad if they were still working when the rains came.

 

Have to say the whole experience wasn't too bad. We were afraid we were going to be stuck here at the house and not able to run errands. But they were here by 7am and done by 2pm. Not shabby at all. Hopefully this will help with our lead problem. Though we don't use tap water anyways for cooking or drinking. When we upgraded our kitchen we spend a little extra money to get a filter system in our kitchen for the purpose of clean water all the time. Especially with the new baby and such. We wanted to make sure the kiddos were always safe. I guess we will just have to see what the test shows.

**UPDATE** We received our testing back from the water. Ugh, not as great as we hoped. Lead tests should be about 15 ppb (parts per billion) and ours were 96 ppb. I will be getting the little ones checked just to make sure we have no issues. I rather be safe then sorry later down the road.