The above photo explains the last day and a half after a pretty brutal storm ripped through the area. While we were lucky to not have lost our power we were without cable, (home) phone service, and internet from Monday morning until yesterday around 5 pm. It was brutal. ;)
We fared better than our neighbor, however. This looks worse than it really was as I do not think their car suffered more than some scratches, but the gutters over their garage were dented. We also just learned their house is up for short sale which terrifies me as who knows what kind of people will move in next. We could get lucky and they’ll be quieter, pet-free, and non-smokers, or they could be the complete opposite and make us miss our current neighbors. I wish we could afford to buy the place ourselves and rent it out so we could control who we end up living next to since we’re going to be here for at least a few more years until the home prices recover.
Speaking of being without things, our air conditioning died on June 10th. Due to the high volume of requests we couldn’t get anyone to even look at it until June 20th because we had decided to bite the bullet and have the entire system, including the furnace, replaced. We knew there was a freon leak in the air conditioner which we had paid to be refilled at least twice (once each season if my memory serves me correctly) so we knew it was time to do something more permanent since the furnace was getting old as well.
At a coworker’s suggestion we went with ABT Electronics. Joe took the day off on Friday the the 22nd for them to do the install. When I got home from work I noticed it was running pretty loudly – a very noticeable and annoying humming was coming from the furnace. In addition to that the air stopped working shortly after it shut off and then was turned back on. We were not pleased. After many phone calls and being talked down to we finally got someone out on that Saturday to take a look and they found the cause of the air ceasing to work was a loosely connected wire in the outside unit. Fixing the noise wasn’t so easy. Try as he might, including using metal tape to seal all the joints in the ducts, he could not make the noise go away (although he did quiet it somewhat). As he was an installer we had an actual technician come out later that night and right away he knew the issue was the motor. He said he had seen the same issue in a few other units. Apparently there’s a fault in them and he said he’d have to order the parts from the manufacturer. Therefore we have to deal with the noise for a few more weeks but at least there’s some relief in sight, or so I hope. I’m starting to get a bit used to the noise but will still be happier once it’s been eradicated.