Last Friday night’s gathering of five centered on a dinner of beef chili and sweet southern cornbread, served at the bar in the 3rd-floor man cave and eaten while balanced on laps in the tv sitting area. That’s what’s required if the downstairs HVAC system is once again on the blink. But it's a forgiving and accommodating crew that regularly gathers here at the house and everyone made it yet another great night to be together.
Last Wednesday, about midday, the downstairs filled with an acrid smell, and a quick sniff at a couple of HVAC registers confirmed that once again the blower motor was blowing up. Although the tech from my dependable folks at Webb Heating & Air Conditioning found it was still functioning, and could not source the odor to any mechanical issue, we awoke the next morning to zero heat and 61°F in the front of the house. The next tech to come Thursday confirmed another blown motor and a replacement timeline of 3-5 days.
By Friday, it was 56°F inside. (Activities and where they occurred adjusted accordingly!) For the record: The latest trio of blower motor issues started with a blow-out in July 2020; the second was in June 2022; and now 18 months later, it's come around a third time. It is proving to be not just inconvenient but awfully expensive for my friends from Webb to continue not figuring out the issue.
When I undertook my first major renovation and addition project on the house in 2008, the HVAC subcontractor who designed and installed the entirely new system for the whole house was Barnette Heating & A/C, Inc. from Mocksville, NC, and it has been a 15-year problem-plagued journey, and the issues have not been small ones. I just realized that the first blower motor that had to be replaced was less than two years after the original installation.
"Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans," from Cook's Illustrated, Number Sixty-One [March-April 2003], p. 10-11.
Sweet Southern Cornbread adapted from "Golden Sweet Cornbread," from bluegirl on AllRecipes.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment