Freezing to Death
I am so sorry that I haven't posted a blog in a while. That's just sort of how I am and I probably won't change anytime soon. Since Thanksgiving we've been fairly hectic. Christmas parties for the boys, shopping for recipe ingredients, etc. I've been working on making 12 different kinds of cookies for 24 people as Christmas presents.
On to the Freezing portion of this blog!
On Saturday the 13th, my lovely husband (don't tell him I called him lovely; he hates that) lit the floor furnace. It was working ok, not great, blew out a few times that day. Nothing major it happens every year because our furnace is about 50 years old and has been jerry-rigged like a thousand times before we bought the house. On Monday, the 15th the stupid thing wouldn't stay lit. It was driving me crazy. I had re-lit it 12 times before 9:00am. Then I lit once again and the damn thing blew up in my face. Scared the crap out of me! I'm lucky I only use the long matches to light the darn thing or it would have caught my hair on fire. I jumped back, fell on my ass, and knocked my head on the pillar at the foot of the stairs. I then proceeded to cuss, a lot and loudly I must admit.
Then I went to my computer and proceeded to call every single SMUD (my local electricity providor) HVAC contractor in my area. Yes, it was over 20 companies. The first guy turned off my gas for me because it was stinking up my joint and making me gag. Not to mention I have two little boys that I don't want huffing gas fumes. I started getting quotes to get a HVAC (central heat and air system just in case I'm driving you crazy) system installed. I was pretty close to crying at the end of Monday. Why? Well, the quotes I was getting were all between $28,000 and $50,000.
My husband and I decided over a year ago that we were not going to incur any more debt. Right now, the only debt we have is our house. We've paid off everything else. The only bills we have are the monthly living expenses such as heating, electricity, food, water/garbage, day care, etc. I must admit this is hard to live by. I want to buy a Blackberry for twittering, I want a Wii Fit, I want a new wedding ring because mine was stolen, etc. But, we don't buy because if we don't have the cash on hand we aren't going to spend the money and incur debt. We do use a single credit card in order to maintain a great credit rating, we just pay the balance in full every month to avoid debt and finance charges.
Back to the story. By the end of Tuesday I was convinced that we were going to have to try to heat our house with space heaters and have an outrageous electricity bill for the winter. Right now as I am typing this blog it is 47 degrees F in my house. Our house was built in 1915. We have no source of heat because the powers that be in Sacramento County have deemed wood fires evil and will fine the home owner. I'm too cheap to pay the fine. I did light Presto logs on Tuesday for heat along with having four different space heaters going. Of course, someone did call me on the Presto logs. They actually came to my door, knocked and told me I had to put out the fire. I, being my calm and reasonable self when freezing to death, starting yelling and screaming at the person that I had no other heat and they could pound sand. I was leaving my fire going and they needed to get the "heck" off my porch.
Then Wednesday rolls around. I considered calling the remaining HVAC companies and cancelling the appointments. However, guy number 1 shows up half an hour early. I figured he was here so what did it matter. If he gave me some stupid quote I'd just laugh and throw it away. This guy gave me a quote for under $13,000. I was stunned and skeptical. I wanted to know what the hidden costs were, how much more we'd be billed after the service. He kept telling me none. That was the price no more. I thought hmmm, this guy is a fraud and doesn't know what he's doing. He's going to sell me a system, do shoddy work and installation, then take my money and run.
Guy # 2 shows up at my door, he gives me a quote for under $15,000, in fact it is about $750 more than the other guy. I asked him why it was so cheap. I wanted to know why and how he could do it for half the cost of the other 18 companies. The first thing I noticed about Guy # 1 and Guy # 2 were they were my age in their mid thirties. The other guys were all older in their 50's to 60's. Not that that matters...but, I'm just saying the prices were considerably different and the the men were different ages. Were the other guys just screwing with me because I'm a woman? Were they trying to milk me for more money because I live in a neighborhood with a higher income bracket? Did they tack on an extra few thousand dollars because my house is the largest on the block (even though we have the smallest lot)? I don't know.
I finally asked Guy # 2 why his price was so much cheaper. He said he didn't know. He proceeded to whip out his binder full of his prices and showed me the breakdown of costs. He already had it figured out how much everything would cost him to do business and figured outhis markup. I showed him the other bids and he started laughing so hard he had tears coming out of his eyes. I knew those other guys were trying to take me. He explained how it would work and how his system was different than the expensive guys.
Needless to say, I'm going with Guy # 1 or Guy # 2. Why do companies see a woman with children and automatically think I am going to refinance my house in order to have heat? Why are they so sure that they can charge me twice the amount of money for the same equipment and expect me to pay? Would those prices have been so outrageous had it been my husband getting the quotes while I was out?
Now PG&E has condemmed our furnace and I will call today to get Guy # 1 or Guy # 2 to start work on Monday or as soon as possible, basically it boils down to who can be here fastest with the fastest install. Both companies are great and I've already checked references and all the licensing and reporting boards. Stay warm everyone!
On to the Freezing portion of this blog!
On Saturday the 13th, my lovely husband (don't tell him I called him lovely; he hates that) lit the floor furnace. It was working ok, not great, blew out a few times that day. Nothing major it happens every year because our furnace is about 50 years old and has been jerry-rigged like a thousand times before we bought the house. On Monday, the 15th the stupid thing wouldn't stay lit. It was driving me crazy. I had re-lit it 12 times before 9:00am. Then I lit once again and the damn thing blew up in my face. Scared the crap out of me! I'm lucky I only use the long matches to light the darn thing or it would have caught my hair on fire. I jumped back, fell on my ass, and knocked my head on the pillar at the foot of the stairs. I then proceeded to cuss, a lot and loudly I must admit.
Then I went to my computer and proceeded to call every single SMUD (my local electricity providor) HVAC contractor in my area. Yes, it was over 20 companies. The first guy turned off my gas for me because it was stinking up my joint and making me gag. Not to mention I have two little boys that I don't want huffing gas fumes. I started getting quotes to get a HVAC (central heat and air system just in case I'm driving you crazy) system installed. I was pretty close to crying at the end of Monday. Why? Well, the quotes I was getting were all between $28,000 and $50,000.
My husband and I decided over a year ago that we were not going to incur any more debt. Right now, the only debt we have is our house. We've paid off everything else. The only bills we have are the monthly living expenses such as heating, electricity, food, water/garbage, day care, etc. I must admit this is hard to live by. I want to buy a Blackberry for twittering, I want a Wii Fit, I want a new wedding ring because mine was stolen, etc. But, we don't buy because if we don't have the cash on hand we aren't going to spend the money and incur debt. We do use a single credit card in order to maintain a great credit rating, we just pay the balance in full every month to avoid debt and finance charges.
Back to the story. By the end of Tuesday I was convinced that we were going to have to try to heat our house with space heaters and have an outrageous electricity bill for the winter. Right now as I am typing this blog it is 47 degrees F in my house. Our house was built in 1915. We have no source of heat because the powers that be in Sacramento County have deemed wood fires evil and will fine the home owner. I'm too cheap to pay the fine. I did light Presto logs on Tuesday for heat along with having four different space heaters going. Of course, someone did call me on the Presto logs. They actually came to my door, knocked and told me I had to put out the fire. I, being my calm and reasonable self when freezing to death, starting yelling and screaming at the person that I had no other heat and they could pound sand. I was leaving my fire going and they needed to get the "heck" off my porch.
Then Wednesday rolls around. I considered calling the remaining HVAC companies and cancelling the appointments. However, guy number 1 shows up half an hour early. I figured he was here so what did it matter. If he gave me some stupid quote I'd just laugh and throw it away. This guy gave me a quote for under $13,000. I was stunned and skeptical. I wanted to know what the hidden costs were, how much more we'd be billed after the service. He kept telling me none. That was the price no more. I thought hmmm, this guy is a fraud and doesn't know what he's doing. He's going to sell me a system, do shoddy work and installation, then take my money and run.
Guy # 2 shows up at my door, he gives me a quote for under $15,000, in fact it is about $750 more than the other guy. I asked him why it was so cheap. I wanted to know why and how he could do it for half the cost of the other 18 companies. The first thing I noticed about Guy # 1 and Guy # 2 were they were my age in their mid thirties. The other guys were all older in their 50's to 60's. Not that that matters...but, I'm just saying the prices were considerably different and the the men were different ages. Were the other guys just screwing with me because I'm a woman? Were they trying to milk me for more money because I live in a neighborhood with a higher income bracket? Did they tack on an extra few thousand dollars because my house is the largest on the block (even though we have the smallest lot)? I don't know.
I finally asked Guy # 2 why his price was so much cheaper. He said he didn't know. He proceeded to whip out his binder full of his prices and showed me the breakdown of costs. He already had it figured out how much everything would cost him to do business and figured outhis markup. I showed him the other bids and he started laughing so hard he had tears coming out of his eyes. I knew those other guys were trying to take me. He explained how it would work and how his system was different than the expensive guys.
Needless to say, I'm going with Guy # 1 or Guy # 2. Why do companies see a woman with children and automatically think I am going to refinance my house in order to have heat? Why are they so sure that they can charge me twice the amount of money for the same equipment and expect me to pay? Would those prices have been so outrageous had it been my husband getting the quotes while I was out?
Now PG&E has condemmed our furnace and I will call today to get Guy # 1 or Guy # 2 to start work on Monday or as soon as possible, basically it boils down to who can be here fastest with the fastest install. Both companies are great and I've already checked references and all the licensing and reporting boards. Stay warm everyone!
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