Living in America

Thankfully Laura and I checked out a house across the street with Chris the Realtor on Saturday. I should explain...

A house across the street (1835 North Capitol Street) recently went on the market for $450K. We aren't looking to move, but simply wanted to see the house and track it...and perhaps understand what our house USED to look like. This way we can gauge the current market value of our house.

The house was very well maintained and had many of the old fixtures/fittings that ours lacks. However, the kitchen was smaller, there was no form of A/C, the basement had yet to be worked on (or so we assume from what the top stairs showed us), and all of the radiators were still in place (this probably means that the heating hasn't been updated). From what we could gather, the plumbing WAS updated, as was the electricity, or at least parts of the electricity.

Either way, none of that really matters. What does matter is that Chris the Realtor provided us with contact information for his go to HVAC guy, Dale. Dale the HVACer was able to stop by on Sunday and I was able to see the inner workings of our furnace. Watching him run through checks of the heating circuit and listening to explanations of how the system works was actually great. I don't understand these things, and while I will likely never perform any of the furnace work myself, it's nice to know why, and how, the work is being done. Thankfully, when all was said and done, we had a problem with a switch in the furnace rather than the circuit board.

Dale came by yesterday with a replacement switch and serviced the furnace while he was there. All in all it only took about two hours and everything looks, and feels, good. The whole thing cost just shy of $300. A small price to pay to no longer wear onsey pajamas all over the house.

Deck the Bedroom...

with one too many armoires.

This holiday season Laura and I agreed to pool our gift money together and buy things for the house. Now, this doesn't mean we won't get one another some small, sentimental gifts, but it does mean that big ticket surprise items are out the window. So, knowing that we both want an armoire for upstairs (necessary after the first failed attempt led to an expensive coat closet), we've already gone ahead and brought Christmas home early.

At approximately 4:00 PM today one Mr. Craigslist Silla will be dropping off the armoire pictured above. I won't say how much it cost, but it was under $700 so it's not as if we went completely overboard or anything. Perhaps this is our equivalent of playing Christmas carols in November or leaving our lights up year round?

We Didn't Start the Fire...

but we may have to if our heating doesn't kick in.

I returned from a lovely Thanksgiving holiday to a 63 degree house. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem except our thermostat was set at 72 degrees the entire time. A little walking around the house made it abundantly clear that the vent are blowing air, but it is luke warm/cool air.

Naturally, Laura and I went to the basement, pulled the cover off of the heating system, and immediately agreed that we cannot address this problem on our own. All that we could do was read the instructions on the inside panel, look at the blinking lights, and read that we have some circuit issue. What the FRS switch is, I have no idea.

I am in the process of trying to contact our local handyman but have so far been unsuccessful. Let's hope that it is a rather minor issue and he can teach us something about our houses's heating system in the process.