2011. 10 Days In and It Already Sucks!

A couple of days ago, for the first time in a very long time, the entire family was sick with some kind of intestinal bug.  We were all running fevers as well as running to the bathroom, and for once nobody was even well enough to fill the role of Designated Tea Maker.  It was the first time we have ever truly needed every bathroom in the house.  We are all feeling a bit better today, well enough that Megan is back at work.  Although my wife is so dedicated to her patients, bless her, that she has to brought low indeed to cancel her work day.  In any event, that crisis seems to be passing.  What you have NOT heard about yet is that we woke up Sunday morning to a freezing cold house for the second time in a week.  Last Tuesday when it happened, the HVAC tech who came out said that the control board had failed in our gas furnace and needed to be replaced to the tune of around $335.  An "ouch" of a bill, but not unexpected when you own a home.  When a (different) technician finally made it out to us on Sunday afternoon, he determined that the board had failed again, but this time he discovered why -- the heat exchanger in our furnace has cracked and failed.  Essentially this means that heat from the furnace had fried the new part -- just like it fried the old one -- and that we need a new furnace.  The heat exchanger is apparently the heart of the furnace and is so expensive to replace (unless it's under warranty) that it's better to get a new furnace.  Ours is NOT under warranty; it had a 10-year warranty and the furnace is 21 years old.  So we are heating with space heaters and barely managing to keep the house at around 55 degrees.  I get to start furnace-shopping in about 20 minutes.

No idea how long we will have to live like this, but I imagine that it will be for a while.  Meanwhile, keep us in your (warm!) thoughts, and if you have any advice to offer regarding chimney-vented gas furnaces, please don't hesitate to be in touch!

2011.  Only ten days in, and I already dislike the way things are going.  Intensely.