Thursday, October 21, 2010

adventures in homeownership

I own a house! I did it all by myself. Purchased it in June 2010, a gigantic tree limb fell about 2 weeks later and since then I've had a few lessons in dealing with insurance, contractors, and insurance adjusters. It is a feeling of accomplishment, confusion, and many questions... not so much with the answer part. But, I guess that is the fun part.

Lately, I have been trying to stay on top of yard work, and maintaining the outside for the long, ugly Minnesota winter. One of the things I haven't dealt with is turning on the heat. It has been so warm and why-- turn on the heat? Well, the last week it has been more and more cold. And at night I am dragging Hendrix under the covers to snuggle me to keep me warm. Against my better judgement I decided to flip on the heat.

When I did this nothing happened. I went downstairs to the furnace and looked around. Checked everything out. What was I looking for? I had a flashlight, but I was shining into the great unknown. I felt some pipes, nothing was warm, I moved this gas lever around --which was very scary. But still nothing. I took to my twitter account. Obviously. I got the advice to google the furnace. Which I did -- and it showed me how to take off the cover. I was still unsure, so I grabbed the instructions and read through it (Which by the way are really hard to read...it has a bunch of tables and gas charts which seem very unnecessary) I looked through a window thingee and it had a red light on, So its on right? I played with the circuit breaker, flashed around some more and still got nothing.

So I did the next best thing. I went next door to my neighbors. So, I was like... "Hey Steve... Can you come and look at my furnace?" He totally was all about it. "Let me grab my flashlight and toolbox" Now, this sounds like a really great sexual encounter. Its not. If you are looking for that. No. That didn't happen. He came over, checked it out. Took off the door flashed some stuff, played with this switch, turned back on the gas (i turned it off before), and flipped a switch again and all the sudden everything kicked on! It was amazing! I was so excited and I felt this pipe and it was warm. I was so happy.


That is my story. I learned a few things this time around, and I am sure something similar will happen again down the road. Here is what I learned:
1. Ask for help. (I did eventually) 2. Do research (I figured somethings out mostly it was confusing but atleast I can identify my furnace and know the model # and stuff)
3. Don't play with gas (that is self explanatory) 4. Use people that are homeowners that figured this stuff out before. 5. When in doubt ask a mature man (they love helping helpless women)

After all the excitement I am enjoying a glass of wine. Its a lot of work. This house business.
Cheers,
Kelly

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