Valentine's Day is a special time for couples. Yesterday my couple was myself and the furnace repair guy. Don't get me wrong, he is absolutely the best of the best. Who else can you call at 3 pm on a freezing Sunday when you know full well that he is and has been jumping around like a crazy person all day. Who else can you call with any expectation that he will (a) answer you and/or return your call and (b) actually have time for you?
Yesterday started out not so badly. The bathtub faucets were still trickling although when I cranked them open and waited for that wonderful gush of water it's just as well I wasn't holding my breath cause it wasn't happening.
There are steps to be taken: go down cellar, trace the pipes and locate the ones feeding the bath tub which, by the way, is actually outside the main building in a bump out . Move the kayak over enough so that you can get a box in next to the foundation to stand on and take a look out there to see if there is anything obviously wrong. Well, other than the water isn't running.
Think about things for a while - it's refreshing to have a nice breeze blowing your hair back while you contemplate a situation but normally that is reserved for outside. It's more disturbing than refreshing when you are inside the house. Note to self: next summer find out where the wind is getting into the house. Moving forward put a drop light braced in there and run the hair dryer for a while, Perhaps things will magically heal themselves.
That only works until the fuse on the drop light needs resetting cause the hair dryer is too much of a load on it.
Plan B - just leave the drop light up in there and run a space heater in the bathroom and try to make everything so warm that nothing can stay frozen. Addendum to Plan B - dump some boiling water down the bath tub drain cause after all the drain runs right along the water in-feed so it can only help..
After a mere 2 or 3 hours it actually worked and I could shower - awesome!
So now what is that humming - which is coming from the furnace - which stops when you smack the side of the furnace? Move the tool box, open the intake panel and check the temp of the blower motor - hotter to my hand than it should be. The noise was the motor trying to start and not.
Back to me and my buddy the plumber and our Valentine's Day moment. Phone discussion on symptoms and decision on action resulting in a visit. One nice thing is he trusts my judgement and if I say something is wrong he believes me - refreshing - the good kind.
He checks voltage and all those other mysterious things that make a furnace work and agrees that the motor is on it's way out - it's taking way too many ergs or ohms or volts to get it to start turning and when it does start the bearings are already complaining. Also pretty cool that he could take a picture of the specs on the motor and go to the other end of the furnace and check actual against standard. He even let me hold the flashlight!
So today I wait for him to call and hope today he can find a new blower motor.
The best thing about yesterday? The big hug and kiss and "Happy Valentine's Day" that he gave me when he came through the door!
And the dog didn't jump up on him.
I made brownie points for defrosting my pipes.
And I had help to git 'er done!
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