Houses Suck

Some of you may know my woes about heating and cooling. For a few years now I had to turn off my older computer because it would overheat and reboot. In the winter we would freeze. It was not a pleasant experience.

A few days ago we noticed that our thermostat had started kicking into Emergency Heat all by itself and then proceed to blow cold air. Our first thought was that it was the thermostat. It was old, really old. It was mercury powered old. We figured it had given up the ghost. If it hadn't it would be good to have a newer thermostat anyway.

I went to Lowes, picked up a cheap $40 digital one and thought it would be good. Little did I know that EM Heat was a special feature and there were no less than seven wires behind the old mercury thermostat. So, after returning that one and picking up the super, monster, do everything except do dishes for you, $80 programmable that would do EM Heat it was installed.

The problem did not abate itself. The exact same problem occurred, exept this time it was called AUX Heatand was in digital. Luckily we have friends that have A/C Heating and Repair freinds. We were shocked to be informed that the AC unit we had was the oldest one he had ever seen. It was 25 years old. He gave us the option of a quick $250 resealing and cleaning or the more costly but more needed replacement offer. For $3,395 we could have a complete brand new 3 1/2 ton Ducane AC and Heating system. Tomorrow we shall see if the new system does any better than the old one. There goes our new fence budget for the year.

The end is not yet here from our house woes. Today we woke up to no hot water either. The hot water heater is only about two years old. There is no way we lost both elements early. So, after checking the breaker about five times we called the same freind that knew the AC guy. Luckily, the guy we called is an electrician and came over faster than Dominoes. We were both puzzled. The system turned out to be getting no power. We checked the breaker and everything seemed to be in working order. On a wild hunch, he individually reset every single breaker except for the main.

Thank God for friends. Without them I'd be putting that damn thing up on the market tomorrow. Even with a crappy AC and no hot water I'm sure I could still pull off $250,000-$300,000. Thank God for a great housing economy.