This was a big HVAC week–although not the most glamorous of topics, still an area vitally in need of some TLC.
We got a new furnace, a new A/C unit, and new ductwork to take the heat and cooling up to the second floor.
Ironically it was warm in the beginning of the week–warm enough that we thought a night without heat might be ok–but naturally, by the end of the week, we had bucketing downpours of rain and hail, and bone-chilling damp.
The crew ran new ducting up to the attic, snaking the ductwork up behind the old dining room built in (carefully removed and saved in the garage), up through the master bedroom closet. Once in the attic, they put drops for vents in the master bedroom, the master bath and master closet, my office, and D’s room.
When we looked at the old detached oil heat furnace, we could see an interior stamp dated January, 1988. The bottom surface of the exhaust vent was piled with ashes and soot. It is such a relief to know we won’t be belching out pollutants anymore and that thing old heap is headed for the dump!
As a finishing touch, the HVAC crew installed a new “smart” thermostat that will allow us to control the temperature from an app on our phones.
By Friday we were all a bit wiped from all the drilling, sawing, pounding, and mud tracked all over the house. So on Friday night, we went out to dinner. One of our ongoing challenges for the bedtime routine has been to constantly build in a window to “pre-heat” Dashiell’s room with a space heater, otherwise getting into bed is a real nightmare (D often dons his nightcap on these occasions). When we dine out this window is almost impossible to find, since we don’t want to run the space heater when out of the house. But tonight we thought: ha! No hot water bottles and nightcaps for us. We’ve got heat in D’s room for the first time, and we’ve got the app!
Jeff took the opportunity to make a bad music pun after consulting his phone to declare: “The Heat is On.” On the drive home from dinner, we were thus obligated to listen to the annoying Glenn Fry song of the same name. D thought it was hilarious.
Speaking of the “heat” referred to in the song, here are some snaps of D turning up the heat on a car chase, where the police can in the scene is trying to catch the bad guys.
(a post-script about this image: years ago Aunt Amanda got D a set of these “magic tracks” that you can use in the dark, with cars that light up the tracks as they travel. They were much loved, until they were forgotten, so I gave them away. Then this fall, D saw a similar set at Fred Meyer, and fell back in love with them, so we bought 2 sets. Today, D is requesting more tracks and another car! Just goes to show Mom that he never really grows out of any toys that “go” –cars, trains, tracks, trucks, etc…)