Ahhh… Modern Conveniences
I think I mentioned before… I did, didn’t I? That our heat has been out. Since last Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving. And it’s been colder than a witch’s tit the past 8 days.
(Well, not really that cold, but for Georgia, it’s been freaking cold.)
Munchkin, the two stinky dogs and the stinky bunny have all been living in the living room (appropriately named, eh?) for 8 days. It is the only place with a heat source, the fireplace. So I have been tending the hearth every night, waking up at odd hours to stoke the fire and add another log. Adjusting blankets. Sliding stinky dogs around. Trying to get comfortable snuggled with an 11 year old on a double chair with an ottoman and the two stinky dogs.
Oh, and did I mention? The dogs are stinky!
With the exception of Monday night, when we didn’t get home until after 8, and it was a frigid night out, I was able to keep the temperature in the house around 64. With the fire going, I could get it up to around 75. So all in all, not too shabby. But you have to make sure of a couple of things to keep the temperature stabilized.
- Have a space heater in the guest bathroom
- Close the wood blinds AND the drapes in the living room
- Have a space heater in the living room
- KEEP ALL THE BEDROOM DOORS CLOSED
- Have plenty of firewood available
- Sleep very lightly
- KEEP ALL THE BEDROOM DOORS CLOSED
Yep, that Monday night mentioned up there? The temperature when we got home wast around 52. Not easy to heat the sleeping quarters up from such a temperature. It took a lot of work. And an oath to never leave the bedroom doors open again, no matter how pathetically the stinky doggies look at you.
It’s been an adventure. <PAH!>
But it is over. Today, my savior, Fred the Heating Tech, finally had the part needed to fix my heater. And after 2 hours, lots of cleaning and banging, a ton of dust spewing into the house, and a magical check for $1000, heat came forth from the registers.
When I took my shower, I stepped out to a warm bathroom for the first time in a week. Ahhhhh, bliss.
So take my foibles to heart and learn well from my mistakes. Before your husband leaves for 9 weeks, make sure you know where the heater filter is. Clean it or replace it as recommended. Don’t use a SUPER microbial washable filter unless you commit to cleaning it every couple of weeks. Pay the low yearly fee to have a tech come clean your heating and air system so the motor, the fan and everything else don’t get so gunked up with shit they don’t work anymore.
If you do these things, you will not be stranded in the ass end of fall with snow flurries outside and no heat inside being miserable, getting little sleep.
And blogging about what an adventure it’s been.
GAH!
I think we would DIE or freeze to death if anything happened to our heating system. As it is, it’s 25F outside right now and snowing. With fuel oil prices here in New England at record highs, it’s hard enough to keep the tanks full in order to survive winter…but I dread just thinking about no heat source. This is the first house we’ve had without a fireplace or some sort of wood burning source and I kinda hate it!
Happy to hear you got your heater working again…and yeah, tell me about the filter thing! Our units will make this God-awful beeping sound if it’s past the recommended time that we’re supposed to take them out and clean them.
I’m sorry I’ve been so bad about coming by…so wrapped up in my own world right now. Do you think NaBloPoMo helped pass the time whilst your hubby is away? I’m not sure how I felt about it. I didn’t connect as much in the community as I would have liked, and some days just posting a couple of useless words was about all I could do to keep from dropping out altogether.
Hope you’re hanging in there. I’ll be better about stopping by.
*hugs*
P.S. Thanks so much for your kind words on my recent post. It really means a lot to me.