Avalanche of Home Repairs

Snowy_Mountain_View

Screeching and other unsettling noises shook the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Headquarters yesterday.

No, I was not baking a pie. And no, the house was not temporarily besieged by ghosts (that I know of).

Instead, we had three “blizzards” of home repairs and improvements converging at once. First, on the coldest day of the year so far, we scheduled our furnace replacement. Nate found a carpenter a few months ago to re-do the attic space, so we could get a new furnace, and it arrived yesterday—amid a whir of machinery, blaring smoke alarms, and falling-down noises.

Half an hour later, what Nate calls a “junk hauler,” descended upon us to take away two older couches, which would be replaced by a new sofa set—hopefully, if all went well.

The new sofa set was not scheduled to arrive for a few more hours, so I always like to spend those precariously precious moments leaving open the super sunny possibility that the new sofa set will be delayed indefinitely. And would I cancel the order once I discovered that maybe I might like sitting in lawn furniture in my living room better?

After a few more pounding noises and smoke alarm scares, it was finally lunch time. The temperatures had dropped in the house considerably, so I grabbed a down coat for my frigid journey into the kitchen.

Soon after, the sofa delivery crew showed up—during one of Nate’s meetings—and one of mine—so we sent Alex down to greet them and “supervise.” He did great! We love the new sofa set—and it only took us a year or so to finally decide on a color and style. That’s kind of a record for us! Woohoo!

Previous_Brown_Couches_with_Mission_Style_Lamp
Older Brown Couches
New_Soft_Gray_Sofa_Set_with_Mission_Style_Lamp
New Sofa Set in Soft Gray

Along with the sofa crew came another furnace installer so it was furnace installer + 1 rummaging about. When it was all over (after about 6 ½ hours, which is long enough for news of our freezing cold house to possibly reach a curious colony of arctic penguins), they had installed the furnace!

BUT: the air conditioning definitely won’t work in the spring because some kind of contraption has to be replaced because, technically speaking, some kind of thing that spins, which is somehow connected to some kind of line that runs from a puck near the furnace, just won’t spin anymore.

The good news is, it was bound to happen anyway, so we’re finding out about it now. Hopefully it’s a tiny contraption that does not require a carpenter to build it its own addition in the attic. I just don’t think my nerves can handle it. Also, I firmly believe the smoke alarm is beginning to screech in a way that’s desperate—like it’s trying to tell us it needs therapy and perhaps an actual trip to the arctic where it will swim away with a raft of penguins and dream of unlit candles.

Your Turn: What’s the weather like where you live? How are you preparing to embrace or endure it?

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Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

32 thoughts on “Avalanche of Home Repairs”

  2. Ah, the candles! I was wondering why the smoke alarm kept screeching. Finally figured it out. I think the old couches look fairly nice, actually, but we have been known to grab furniture from the side of the road. So clearly I’m not an authority. New couch is very nice also.
    We had sort of the opposite during the hot summer: AC wouldn’t work for the very same reason as yours is likely to go out soon (Some spinny thing isn’t spinning or somethingorother) and were told the furnace would go out soon. It’s working currently, so that’s a problem to solve another day!

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    1. Nate turned on the electric fireplace, which set the smoke alarms off–and the new furnace set them off, too (because it’s burning off factory oil). Candles, weirdly enough, don’t have an effect on the smoke alarm, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one–it could still happen. Also, I am still quite partial to the “old” couches–and that picture is from when we first got them, so they were new in that picture–but over time, they faded–and the cat drooled/vomited on them at some point–so yeah, not even St. Vincent de Paul would take them. The new couch is rather snuggly, though! And, here’s to spinny things–may they just keep spinning.

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  4. Hi Cecilia,
    I like the new sofa and it’s great you now have a new furnace in time for the worst of winter.
    It’s summer here so I am pretty happy and when it starts to feel uncomfortable I turn on a small portable fan.
    Australian summers can be harsh, so I’m grateful at the moment most days do not exceed 32 °C.

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  5. The couch looks great! IDK how I’d do if I need to replace a furnace during the winter 😰 Here we have had two winter storms in one week. With wind-chill, we’re looking at -20 to -40 degrees all weekend and into Tuesday. The kids only went to school two days.

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  11. Your new couch looks great! The weather here in TX is especially cold right now, and we’ve even had a few flurries. This happens once or twice a year, but I was thinking maybe we’d skip it this year. Too cold, and they don’t build homes and apartment buildings here for this weather!

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    1. Thank you! Yes–it’s unusually cold here, too–and just like where you live, they don’t build the homes or buildings for this kind of weather–and there’s practically no budget for treating the roads, either.

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  13. “What’s the weather like where you live? How are you preparing to embrace or endure it?”

    Cold here. temps on the teens which for Atlanta, is cold. I’ve insulated all I could, but I’m not prepared enough. I need some blow in insulation for the attic and a bit of reno up there. losin alot of my heat that way. Cinder block walls aint helpin much either.

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