The Unexpected

No one ever said buying and modernizing an 85 year old home would be uneventful or easy.

Being a pretty big HGTV junky, I always knew, but never wanted to admit, how fake shows like “Love it or List it” are.

The other day, I really felt like I was on an episode, maybe not for the best. We had a furnace tune-up scheduled, just to make sure things were in good order before the cold set in and before we were living at the house full time. And that’s when the HGTV drama hit. A call of “you have dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in your home” really has a way of setting the tone for the rest of your day.

As you can see, this old beast needed some help.

Through the buying and planning process, we knew that we were always working with the unknown. But this was just one of those knowns that we were hoping would be able to give us a year or two before demanding to be replaced. Yeah, not so much.

But the good news: we can sleep soundly in the house without the fear of carbon monoxide poisoning.

We were pretty lucky to get a good recommendation of an HVAC guy (Thanks, Sean!) who just so happened to be able to start immediately and at half the price of what others were quoting us.

Now I just have to face the facts and admit that I won’t be getting my new kitchen quite yet. But look at that shiny new air conditioner!

The old, energy-sucking-poison-leaking-poorly-installed furnace.

To answer this installer’s question: No, more aluminum tape does not make for a better furnace.

Looking at ugly air conditioner piping is not really all that lovely.

Look at that beauty, ready to move in!

The new air conditioner. Too bad we won’t be able to use it for 6 months.

And the new furnace. Giving us 95% efficiency as well as about 1/3 of our utility room back.

To finish the job, rerouting the air conditioner piping so it’s not quite as obnoxious.

Here’s to avoiding carbon monoxide poisoning!