We fixed the furnace, kinda

In May our hot water heater broke, so we had to have it repaired and then a few weeks later the inspector came over to inspect the work. The first thing he noticed was a hole, the size of a quarter, that has rusted through our exhaust ducts that led from the furnace to the chimney. Since it was the beginning of summer, our plan was to keep the heat off and deal with it in the fall. And now it’s fall.

  So we tacked the job yestereday, we shut off the pilot light to both the hot water heater and the furnace, took the duct apart and then went up to the hardware store to recreate our holey ducts. There are actually two ducts that needed repair, but the other one we just taped up with some aluminum duct tape. In hindsight, we should have just taped up this one too. Because we turned off the pilot light to the furnace, and now it won’t turn back on.

Stupid furnace. And of course we didn’t realize that the pilot light wasn’t on until this morning. I was lying in bed thinking: You know what? I don’t think I heard the furnace kick in yet. And why is it so freaking cold in here? And all of the scenarios to what caused the heat not to turn on were rolling through my head and eventually stopped on: the pilot light. The pilot light never turned on. It’s self-igniting, so by turning the knob from off to on should have done it.

Anyhow, now I’ve got to call to get that fixed, but in the meantime I’m thankful for flannel sheets and wool socks. If the sun would come out, I’d be thankful for that too since I have full exposure on all sides of my house, with my living room facing south. That alone would guarantee me 70 degrees clear into the night, but until that happens I’m at 65. The reason we didn’t notice it yesterday was because of the sun, and then I roasted vegetables for dinner. It got so warm in here that I had to open windows. If the sun doesn’t come out soon, I’ll be forced to bake a cake.