Our house is heated by a gas furnace located in the basement. It has some really cool floor grates that really need a polish but look great (haha pun, get it!??) in the livingroom. When we went through the home inspection, the inspector wasn't able to fully access the furnace because the previous owner built a drywall case around it. Since home inspectors won't move or destroy things in the home to create access, we received only a flashlight lit "it looks okay" check and a recommendation to remove the case since it's a firehazard. After we bought the home, our gas company came out to turn on the gas and the guy red tagged our furnace for the case (for those who don't know, "Red tagging" is exactly that- they tie a red paper tag onto the appliance that can't be used until it's fixed, and the tag is supposed to remain there until then. It's effective. And unsightly.) He lit it through the grate and told us it worked fine, but he shut it off until we could remove the box. So Drew clawed off the box.
I smelled gas. And this time it wasn't coming from our Boxer puppy.
Funny thing about the gas company- if you call the main line and tell them "I think I smell gas in our basement," they're at your house in under an hour. Such service! Sure enough, my nose did not fail me. We had gas leaking from around a connector. So our gas was shut off while the gas man capped off our furnace and told me all the things that needed to be fixed.
Three plumbers later and all dreams of saving for a new kitchen seemed to be dashed. Each one insisted that our furnace could not be fixed, that it was not to code, and that for a mere $3500 to $4000 they could install a new dual wall heater upstairs.
People, we just bought a HOUSE. We don't have money for a doormat- where are we going to find four grand for a new heating system!??
This is when I discovered the power of whining about your problems. Everyone knew about our furnace problem. My mom even bought us one of those fake fireplace electric heater media centers to keep us warm. Finally, I whined to the right person. My uncle worked at the gas company for 30 years, and as I relayed our sob story once more, my dear uncle boldly declared that we were being screwed. Right away he picked up the phone and called a buddy of his who still works for the gas company. He came to our house within two hours, fixed half the problem, took the other half back to be welded, and charged us a mere $130 for the whole project.
Are you kidding me?
Here's the lesson I took from the whole debacle: I could be angry at the previous owners for the shoddy DIY. I could be angry at the three plumbers who saw us as fresh meat they could upcharge. But instead, I'm going to be thankful for the $3870 I still have in my pocket and the man named Dave who did a favor for his old buddy's niece.
PS: An interesting side note to this story- Dave and my uncle have known each other so long, Dave attended my uncle and aunt's wedding, where I was the flower girl. Talk about a small world!!!
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