Thankfully we pulled up to the house when we returned and all the snow was gone. It’s been unseasonably warm, from what I hear, in the Twin Cities this winter. I can’t say that I’m going to complain. It’ll make the unpacking easier. First thing to do when we get inside is to take a walk around to make sure nothing fell apart while we were gone. Next up, turn the temperature back up to 70, from the 55 degrees that we set it at. I Look at the thermostat and it says 47…
Uh Oh
When you set the thermostat to a specific temperature it usually stays there, or at least within a couple of degrees. 8 degrees different from where it’s set? That’s a problem. I go to check out the furnace in the basement, and it’s not firing at all. I guess that next on the list is to call my furnace company, Residential Heating and Air. Since I’m one of their preferred customers, and their office is nearby., they get someone out to the house within 30 minutes. (If you need HVAC work give them a call, and ask for Renee and tell her I sent you) 
Find out that we have a cracked heat exchanger. For those who don’t know what that means, it means it’s new furnace time. Since it’s been so warm, they aren’t overwhelmed with business, so they can come out and install it the next day. $3100, with all the Minneapolis permitting fees, and we have a new furnace. This was definitely not a planned expense, but this is why you build up and maintain an emergency fund. No need to go in to debt for something like this if you can plan ahead and prepare for it. Just so you know, you CAN plan and prepare so something like this will not put you in a bad financial situation.
Now, The Real Problem
What goes along with a non functioning furnace, in the winter, in a Northern climate??? If you guessed frozen water pipes you would be correct. That $3100 for a new furnace is a drop in the bucket compared to the bills that can come from damage that accompanies frozen pipes and water still running to the house. Especially when it is warm enough that the pipes wouldn’t stay frozen.
So the question is, when did the furnace stop working? The day we left? The day we arrived? Somewhere in between? Obviously, the earlier it fails the more time there is for damage.
Thankfully, I’m in the real estate business, and I’m very familiar with the damage potential. Knowing that we were going to be leaving for almost 6 weeks, with nobody staying at the house, I decided that we’d winterize the house before departing. Total damage to the house due to a broken furnace…$3100. My recommendation to anyone leaving for any more than a couple of days would be to at least shut off the main water supply line in. In that situation you’ll at least limit damage to that form the water just sitting in the lines. I’m not just talking about during the winter only either. In my first property I had a hose to the washing machine break while I was away for the weekend. I came home to a foot of water in the basement, even though there was a sump pump running in the basement. That should tell you how much and how fast water can run in your house.
Please use my experience with this as a lesson to reduce the chances of you having any issues caused by something similar. We’ll be discussing this further in my next post. 😉
Settling Back In
We’re definitely not enjoying being thrust back in to the day to day life back at home. Somehow, Daisy has managed to find a way to be comfortable regardless of whether we’re on the road or back at home.
Lots of unpacking, laundry, and miscellaneous errands to run. Pretty much a downer after being away for a while, and not feeling the desire to come back.
After a couple of days of this we felt the need for some more excitement again. We decided to go to the Red Bull Crashed Ice races in Downtown St. Paul. It was packed with people, obviously taking advantage of the nice warm weather.
The races were crazy. We were trying to think about who thought these races up…and then the smell of Mary Jane came wafting by. Then we started to get an inkling of how people thought up some of this stuff. 😉
Get Connected
As always, I’m going to be spending alot of time in my Facebook Group trying to help people with this in a relatively specific nature. Although I’ll answer some questions in the comments here, I really want the discussions to happen in the Facebook Group. Please sign up for that here and engage in the conversations and start to change your life.
If you want to do some of what we’re doing, you can do it. Please join our Location Independent Living community in our Facebook Group, and let us help you through the journey.
If you are in the Twin Cities area please feel free to come out to our new Location Independent Living Meetup Group meetings here.
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