Home Improvements

This past week was the beginning of a major home improvement - this was our back yard and the alley behind, below was our front yard.  Remember how hot is was last summer? - so hot that I actually MOVED my sewing and much of my existance downstairs to the basement.  Our old A.C. unit was inadequate for that extraordinary heat.  Additionally, our old behemoth of a furnace that was over 50 years old, wile still functioning, it had definitely seen better days, and was terribly inefficient, compared to new models.  We bit the bullet and "called the man".   (Should I say his mother is a quilter?) 

We were shocked at the cost of upgrading our electrical service -- double to our guesstimate.   That job was done the previous week with 3 guys.  All this work was accompanied lots of noise, hammering, ladders, up and down on the roof, in and out of the house, up and down stairs, Building Inspection, but was eventually ready for installation of the HVAC system.

Removing the old furnace equipment from the house was an astonishing production.  I was shocked at the amount of old junky, dirty stuff that came out of the furnace room.  The old firebox itself must have weighed over 500 lbs - that was scarey to know that monstrosity had been working as well as it did!  There were 5-6 young guys in and out of our house for most of 4 days - I lost track of trips in and out.  They had put down plastic over the carpet, and took as much care as possible - they were the best -- polite, courteous, hard-working, skilled, professional and considerate.  I wish I had a dollar for every trip up or down stairs!  Yikes, such energy.  They also were in and out, up and down, in the ceiling putting in new "runs", making things, taking apart things, dumping old stuff, unpacking new stuff, pounding, coming and going, sawing holes in the carpet/floor for new registers!  So much activity wore us both out - we had to miss our naps for 4 DAYS!

Some of stuff coming IN - only a fraction of the total!  (I liked the poppies in the background!)

Ahhhh, the new A.C. condenser!  Happy Day!

Of course, all is computer-everything!  A person can't just "fix" things any more!  The digital inside thermostat is another computer - can be connected to a smart phone, if I get  a modem.  I could actually be far from home and adjust the home thermostat digitally so the house is warmed to the right temp when I walk in the door.  Oh Good Grief!!!

All this work was done in 4 days.  Since installation, we've had some cool weather - the furnace works great!  Now we're waiting for hot weather, to see how the A.C. works.  8-)))  Naturally, we had to "play" with the computer thermostat!  It's a relief to know this big job is done, and done well. Funny thing - when we bought the house 15 years ago, this was going to be the first improvement!  LOL

Oh yes, one more good thing - there was so much activity, we couldn't waste time watching the danged news on the TV, so DH finished HIS boat project and I finished MY quilt project!  That will be another post!

Tattle Tale

I am a terrible wife but I still can't resist!

You may have remembered I wrote one entire post about "how to get the furnace going, at the end of summer, or when the pilot light blows out" ... thinking ahead, that one day I may actually have to do that dreaded, most detestable, but very important job. "Dreaded, most detestable job" are the words my DH would use. Frankly, I never DID the job but thought I ought to be educated in case of emergency. In western Nebraska, there ARE mornings when it's 30 below zero, unfortunately!

Well, we had the emergency the other morning. Our nights have been frosty, and about 4:00 am I woke to a very cold nose. Oh my, please, let that NOT be the problem ...well, OK, the pilot light had indeed gone out and now we/I was going to have to face this dreaded job. "Dreaded" is the term from DH mouth, not mine. A lot of OTHER terms spew from his mouth when this happens and I WAS not looking forward to hearing them. I gently and lovingly (uh hemmmm) woke 'the man.'

OK, being the devoted and dutiful wife and partner, I'll try first, as I shuffle downstairs, push open the utility room door, get a chair (MUCH easier than crawling on the floor), put a rug down on the floor (bare feet), open front of furnace, stick head in boiler while butt is on chair(yep, pilot light is out) light match, hold the red button in and whoooosh - it lit. That's all. No swearing, no major problems, no hollering - this "dreaded" job took all of 4 minutes, from start to finish.

So gals, .... what am I missing here? It was almost a letdown to find the job was totally 'do-able' ... a piece of cake ... OK you women with psychology background, what's the deal? There's a lesson here and I'm not sure what it is, nor how to bring the subject up with uhhhh, 'you know who' who was still upstairs, trying to become awake.

Ladies - Be Prepared

As temperatures are dropping, I decided it was time to learn about this subject tonight. Who knows -- I might actually have to DO this job, some day, by myself.

Our furnace is an old, so far dependable, behemoth oil unit, converted to gas. (If I didn't have that huge old furnace, I'd have room for a long-arm!!!)

I have heard of women who have never pumped their own gasoline, have never brought their car in for service themselves, have not managed a checking account (huh? in this day and age?). Being independant by nature, I can manage most of the household maintenance projects, but the furnace operations eluded me. Hey, it cost nearly $100.00 for a service call and the tech wouldn't know how to do it right anyway. I'd rather do it myself. You never know when you'll need to know these things!

I'll leave these instructions for the next home owner should we ever leave.

Turning AC off, and furnace ON (inside and Out)

1. Turn A.C. switch OFF (down) on the outside of house and associated breaker panel switch in basement OFF.
2. Get rug for knees. Grab a bunch of paper towels and stuff them in your pocket. Collect flashlight and two adjustable wrenches. Pull hair off your face and clip it back - very important!
3. Turn light on by water heater, open lower panel on furnace, get down on your knees or stomach (hope you are wearing old clothes!) and lubricate both right and left ‘spigots’ on each side of the motor. You need two hands to do this job - one to hold the spring loaded oil spot and one to hold the oil can, so I hope stomach/chest muscles are in great shape. Oil can is already there. A longer spout would be helpful on the oil can. A stronger battery on the flashlight would also be helpful. A younger body for the 'doer' would also be helpful. Rotate the belt several times.
4. Change Filters (2). You are DONE in this area.
5. Remove precious Barbed Wire Collectible (Robert's) on the wood door that opens into the other side of the furnace. Open the door with muscle!(it sticks) on the other side of the furnace, access from the family room. Remove furnace panel to expose the works.
6. Open door to boiler, and locate Red Reset button near floor. Assure that pilot valve is ON. Looks like the letter “B” .. (need wrench) to turn it to a vertical position.
7. Get matches, extension match holder from the cabinet to your right where they are stored. Then, look down inside boiler to locate the approximate area of pilot light. You will have to put you head INSIDE the boiler to find it. That's why you need your hair pulled out of the way.
8. Light match without breaking it at the same time and secure it in the extension tool.
9. Look at the equipment near the floor and locate the RED reset button. While holding down the RED button with left hand, reach down inside the boiler with your right hand in the area of the pilot light, with lit match clipped on the extension tool and listen for the pilot light to ignite, all the time continuing to hold the RED Reset Button down. When the pilot lights, continue to hold down the RED button for about 1 minute. This has something to do with a thermoxxxxxxer.
10. Get back UP from your knees. It might help to keep a small chair or stool in this area to lean on while trying to get back in an upright position.
11. If you don’t have an assistant to yell at, RUN upstairs, set Thermostat to HEAT, and temp to appropriate setting to ensure furnace will turn ON. When you hear the Whoosh downstairs, everything is working correctly.
12. Close the boiler door. Close the panel on the furnace.
13. Close that damned wood door that needs to be shortened so it doesn’t close with such difficulty – you need muscle to close it!
14. Replace collectable Barbed Wire ‘thing’ on the Damned Wood Door, then go upstairs and fix yourself a Screwdriver to celebrate accomplishment of this job.
15. Carry tools, flashlight, back upstairs, replace the rug that you put down for your poor ole knees.
16. Enjoy the warmth! Modulate thermostat upstairs for ON and OFF relative to temerature settings.
17. Occasionally, if the wind blows very hard, that pilot light blows out.

Come spring, reverse the process.