Monday, April 21, 2008

The Furnace is (Finally) Fixed

Sky is also happy that the furnace is fixed
Now she is contemplating the role that furnaces play in our complicated lives
Now she's getting annoyed at me for taking so many pictures

Yes, the furnace was fixed as of Thursday afternoon...just in time for 75 degree weather. There has been a bit of drama associated with this current furnace dilemma. It broke Monday morning and Monday afternoon the repair guy came out and said that he need to replace the flame sensor ($160)

Me: Bleck. Fine, we can't live without a furnace. I don't want to pay the $160 (on top of the $79 fee to come out initially), but what choice do I have?

So, the repair guy came back out on Tuesday afternoon and said that it actually wasn't the flame sensor, it was the control panel...which costs between $500 and $600...and by the way your warranty just expired a couple of months ago.

Ack! $600?! !#$%^&@. I don't have that kind of money laying around. There goes our tax return.

Wednesday morning, bright and early, I called up the Ruud furnace guys. I explained (as calmly as I could) that the control panel was broken and should not have broken under normal wear and tear, and I was hoping that they would extend the warranty to cover it. And...they did!

Thank you Lord! Forgive me for not trusting you to take care of my family. Forgive me for all of the curse words that I said in my head. Forgive me for not trusting that, even if we had to pay the $600, you would still take care of us.

So a mere $75 dollars later, our furnace is fixed. Being a home owner, I have learned the important lesson of being proactive when there is a problem. There is us ally a solution that is not as expensive as you initially thought, or were told. For example, when my car was acting funny and Firestone told me it would be $450 to fix it. I just researched the problem and how much the parts actually cost, and found someone else to fix it for less than half the cost.

Lesson learned: a little research goes a long way, it never hurts to ask, and be kind to people and they'll usually treat you kindly in return.

1 comment:

Meg said...

I'm scared to own a house! But its fun :)