Icicle Fingers

We are officially homeowners now. I mean, we signed the papers, got the keys, moved in and everything, but it still wasn't official. 

Not until something broke. 

Something really, really expensive. 

The heat pump. Yikes. 

At first we noticed that the air out of the vents didn't seem very warm. The thermostat was turned pretty low and the first few days here I had the system off and the windows open because I was painting, and it was really warm outside. Then one night we decided to "just see what would happen" if we cranked it up to 90. 

The emergency heat came on. The heat pump has little coils in the top of it that help it warm up the air when it's below freezing. Well, it wasn't below freezing, they were on, and the outside unit would come on for a second and then turned off. We knew there was trouble. So we did what we were supposed to do and called the home warranty company (our sellers had bought a policy). 

We decided that home warranty= BIG ripoff. They sent someone out, who said that there were two big cracks where the freon was leaking, some accumulator part was all rusted, etc. Since these things didn't just happen the week before, they decided it was pre-existing condition prior to when the warranty began and won't cover it. 

So here we are, sitting in a freezing cold house. We had the emergency coils on (they still worked until this morning) but that's basically like heating your house with your oven (super expensive!). Then this morning I think those burned out because I woke up to a really bad electrical burning smell and just turned the system off altogether. It's 60 degrees on the top floor. I think I could refrigerate things in the basement! We got 2 bids and were going to get a third tomorrow, but we broke down and went with the people who came out from Costco because we decided they seemed decent (and Costco's pretty picky with who they recommend), we get a % off because we are Costco members, and they can do it this week. Hooray! So right now I'm waiting for them to call me back and finalize the schedule. 

This is going to run us a lot of money but at least with the good ole' stimulus plan, we'll get $1500 off on next year's taxes! So it makes the price tag a little easier to swallow. And at least everything else in the house is basically new (roof, pipes, water heater, etc). 

I'm ending this post now, because as the name implies, my fingers are icicles as I type. I did break down today though and finally just put on my winter hat.