This Cold House Part III: The Warming

So when last we saw our fabled, but tragically flawed, hero, he and his wife were buried in bed with 14 blankets piled to the sky. Somehow, beyond all powers of reason and chance, they made it through the night while getting some semblance of sleep. As dawn broke, our hero called the HVAC company, who promised to send out a technician at the next opportunity.

OK, enough of the third person. While waiting for the HVAC company, I decided to continue on with the never-ending outlet replacement project. By the time they arrived, I had replaced three more outlets, all of which functioned, and I was getting a bit of my confidence back. But as we all know, the structure of the fable requires numerous setbacks before the hero finally overcomes all and learns his lesson. More on this later.

After spending about an hour trying to figure out why my furnace keeps shutting off, the technicians (yes, the sent TWO!) decided to replace the pipe they had taped (which was part of the original plan, anyway), and see if that fixed the problem. Alas, no dice. After another half-hour of wrangling, they determined that the exhaust pipe must be blocked somewhere, and that the gasses were backing up into the furnace. This didn't happen before, because the big honking hole in the pipe was venting the gasses INTO THE HOUSE. Now that the pipe was fixed, the blockage caused the gasses to back up into the furnace, where a safety switch tripped. The logical conclusion was that the vent cap on the roof was blocking the pipe. If that wasn't the case, then some significant wall busting work was going to be required. So I kept my fingers crossed on the vent cap being the source of all this consternation.

Next step, get someone up on the roof to look at the cap. Now, if you recall, this was Wednesday. And what did Mother Nature have in store for us that day? Well, a little bit of the magic pixie dust we call snow. So I wasn't anticipating that it would be easy to get a roofer out. However, last week I stumbled across a website called ServiceMagic.com. If you fill out some information on what work you need accomplished, they find three companies that they have vetted and send them your request. When I did this for the HVAC issue, I had a call from all three companies by the time I got back to my desk. Same this time, though only two companies called. The first was very nice, but they said that it would have to be an emergency service because of the snow, and they would charge me $650. Not gonna happen. The second company called two minutes later, and said they'd do it for $125 and would be there in an hour.

So an hour goes by, and a lovely little man and his minion show up with a big honking ladder and head up to the roof in the snow. Ten minutes later, they come back down. They sealed the leak in the vent pipe, and said that the cap was the problem. At this point, there is much excitement and fist pumping. WE WILL HAVE HEAT! A subsequent test of the furnace reveals that, yes, it stays on. By about 3 pm, the thermostat registered a balmy 70 degrees!

My excitement, however, was short-lived. It is great to have heat again, but let's return to the outlet replacement project. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the outlets, only to find that the kitchen outlets were a different amperage than the rest of the outlets, and were much harder to deal with. After another three trips to Home Depot, I got what I needed. However, the lady at the returns desk recognized me and commented on how my project was taking a while. How sad must I be that the uncaring Home Depot employees recognize me and remember what I returned four days before?

So I finally completed the outlets, and the furnace was working. All was right with the world, right? Not so fast, gentle reader. This story is like any other Hollywood blockbuster- there must be an opening left for ANOTHER sequel. When I checked the mail that night, a letter arrived from my Homeowners Association. The annual review of homes had concluded, and I had TEN things on the exterior of my house that need to be fixed within 30 days, or I would be in violation of the covenants.

Stay tuned... Maybe I'll even bring Doc Brown back from the Future...