New year, new HVAC system
So the upstairs unit finally died. We were in the middle of a cold snap last week, overnight lows in the teens, and Monday night it started smoking just like it did this time last year. We had to have the fire department out again, but this time it was more serious. The blower wouldn't stop smoking, and it singed some of the duct insulation. What finally wound up happening was one of the fireman, who is an HVAC guy for his day job, pulled the blower off the unit--that's the thing that forces the heated (or cooled, when the a/c is on) air into the ducts so it goes into each room--and put it out on the lawn.
David and I piled on extra blankets, and our HVAC guy picked it up the next morning. The verdict, as soon as it was thawed and he could actually look at it, was: kaput. The unit was a Trane with a 14 year warranty, and it was original to the house, which was built in the 1990s. The early 1990s. We've all been low key expecting this to happen for a few years, it's been needing more and more maintenance and frankly I'm surprised it got through all of last summer without dying. It was so hot for so many weeks that it was just running full blast 24/7; I'd get up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning to pee and it would be be on.
I was worried more about heat than cold; cold I can deal with. I have a heating pad for my bed and a mountain of afghans (some of them my sister made and some of them were made for my grandmother by other women who lived in her assisted living facility). During the evening, before I went to bed, I would just add layers; if all else failed I could put on my new coatigan, which is a wool blend and very warm.
But Louisiana has a short winter and an even shorter spring--some years it's like, 10 days. I was worried we were going to be "waiting on a part" for months. This is not just my stupid anxiety brain, we've been "waiting on a part" for the refrigerator, which has been experiencing wild mood swings and constantly has to have the thermostat adjusted (we've had to throw out so much food that froze/thawed), since November. We "waited on a part" for the stove that had to be replaced for so long that even Mom eventually gave up and just went to Home Depot. She's the one who always wants some cousin's friend's brother-in-law to do this kind of work, the problem with that being they do not exactly have the kind of purchasing power that a large national chain does. I thought David and I were going to be sleeping on the couch downstairs while the needed part(s) were stuck on some container ship ducking Houthi missiles in the Red Sea.
So it's been a pretty bad week for my anxiety, but for once it wasn't warranted: the part arrived on Monday--actually a day earlier than expected--and they showed up at the house at 8:00 on the dot yesterday. Just in time too, we're having another one of those muggy, drizzly, too-warm-for-winter spells at the moment, although over the weekend it's going to get cool again. It took all day, but they got it all done, down to installing new ductwork and insulation. They even put in new duct grilles, plastic ones that have been treated to retard mildew (the old ones were aluminum and pretty corroded). It's much quieter and more efficient than the old one, it'll probably wind up saving money on the electric bill.
So my stupid anxiety will just have to constantly freak out about something else this summer. I'm sure it will find something.
In other news, I went a lil' bit nuts and bought this 3D puzzle printing press thing:
Pretty ambitious for someone whose previous attempts at 3D construction always seem to come out lopsided, but the brand has very good reviews so I'm hopeful. And I can use it for my mixed media collages.
David and I piled on extra blankets, and our HVAC guy picked it up the next morning. The verdict, as soon as it was thawed and he could actually look at it, was: kaput. The unit was a Trane with a 14 year warranty, and it was original to the house, which was built in the 1990s. The early 1990s. We've all been low key expecting this to happen for a few years, it's been needing more and more maintenance and frankly I'm surprised it got through all of last summer without dying. It was so hot for so many weeks that it was just running full blast 24/7; I'd get up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning to pee and it would be be on.
I was worried more about heat than cold; cold I can deal with. I have a heating pad for my bed and a mountain of afghans (some of them my sister made and some of them were made for my grandmother by other women who lived in her assisted living facility). During the evening, before I went to bed, I would just add layers; if all else failed I could put on my new coatigan, which is a wool blend and very warm.
But Louisiana has a short winter and an even shorter spring--some years it's like, 10 days. I was worried we were going to be "waiting on a part" for months. This is not just my stupid anxiety brain, we've been "waiting on a part" for the refrigerator, which has been experiencing wild mood swings and constantly has to have the thermostat adjusted (we've had to throw out so much food that froze/thawed), since November. We "waited on a part" for the stove that had to be replaced for so long that even Mom eventually gave up and just went to Home Depot. She's the one who always wants some cousin's friend's brother-in-law to do this kind of work, the problem with that being they do not exactly have the kind of purchasing power that a large national chain does. I thought David and I were going to be sleeping on the couch downstairs while the needed part(s) were stuck on some container ship ducking Houthi missiles in the Red Sea.
So it's been a pretty bad week for my anxiety, but for once it wasn't warranted: the part arrived on Monday--actually a day earlier than expected--and they showed up at the house at 8:00 on the dot yesterday. Just in time too, we're having another one of those muggy, drizzly, too-warm-for-winter spells at the moment, although over the weekend it's going to get cool again. It took all day, but they got it all done, down to installing new ductwork and insulation. They even put in new duct grilles, plastic ones that have been treated to retard mildew (the old ones were aluminum and pretty corroded). It's much quieter and more efficient than the old one, it'll probably wind up saving money on the electric bill.
So my stupid anxiety will just have to constantly freak out about something else this summer. I'm sure it will find something.
In other news, I went a lil' bit nuts and bought this 3D puzzle printing press thing:
Click to viewPretty ambitious for someone whose previous attempts at 3D construction always seem to come out lopsided, but the brand has very good reviews so I'm hopeful. And I can use it for my mixed media collages.