Welcome to the Bowels of Hell

When I say that, I really mean, welcome to my sweltering house.  A few months ago, I posted about how our heat pump was on it's way out.  Well, we managed to get by for a few months with some quick fixes, trying to use energy more efficiently in this incredible old house, and sheer luck. 

TODAY, OUR LUCK HAS RUN OUT MY FRIENDS.  See, last Sunday, right before I was having my family over for a BBQ, the system froze up.  No joke.  90+ degrees outside, and my heat pump was a huge block of ice.  I actually went and stood next to it for a while, it felt AWESOME.  So anyway.  When your system turns into a small sub-arctic iceberg, it is usually indicative of a leak.  The repair guys came out here (after we had to turn off the system for a day to let it defrost), and refilled us with more refrigerant.  For a pretty penny.  Or, many pretty pennies is more like it.  Actually, it was a shit load of pretty pennies. 

We knew we had a leak, we knew that it was obvious that we couldn't keep up with this quick-fix thing much longer, especially with the hottest summer on record, so this week we started getting estimates for the necessary repairs.  Because our house is an old piece of shit that was neglected for many many years before we came along, of course it's not just a matter of replacing the unit itself.  We are looking at replacing the electrical panel (we still use FUSES, people!  Time for a modern day breaker box), then there's getting rid of the old original (50+ years) furnace, since a new system will be able to provide both hot and cold air, and naturally, repairs, replacements and upgrades to the duct work, so the money we spent on the awesome new system will actually work for us and have the hot or cold air blown in to the rooms, as opposed to sit in the basement, which is what it does now. 

So, last night, as I am stopping at the grocery on the way home from work, I get a call from the Hubs.  Who informs me that the fan on the heat pump has gone kaput.  Which is awesome.  Our house is all brick.  Which you might think is really cool.  But it's not.  It actually functions like a brick oven in the summer.  It's all fine and dandy, until that sun comes up, then warms up the brick, and then the house holds heat.  Right now, it's 8:30 on Friday morning (and I am not going to work, yayayay), and the internal temperature is 88 degrees.  Yes.  88 FRIGGIN DEGREES.   It's practically unbearable.  I have the windows open, since it was only 75 degrees this morning, but thanks to the humidity, the air is stagnant, and not moving, so my house maintained at the 88 degree mark. 

We tried to set up a camp in the basement last night.  The Hubs had alerted me that he had gone through and de-spidered (but you never can be too sure, right?)  And it's actually a good place to hang out.  There is a bar down there, a pool table, and a TV with cable.  There aren't chairs, but we pulled out some of those fold-up camping chairs, and made do for a while.  The plan was to blow up an air mattress and camp out down there, but the pump for the air mattress needed to be charged for 8 hours.  Ridiculous.  We tried to sit it out, but unfortuntately, those get seriously uncomfortable for people with pregnant bellies, and after a while, I had to go lie down upstairs.  Which was a huge mistake.  I slept, or tried to sleep, with the fan on me all night, and as long as I didn't move, it wasn't too bad.  Too bad pregnant people can't sleep without moving fivehundredfortyfive times in one minute.  So that was interesting.

Now, I am getting my stuff together to head out of town today (THANKFULLY), and literally, sitting in a pool of my own sweat (you're welcome for that awesome image), and waiting until the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE to shower.  It's all about strategy, folks.  The plan is for the Hubs to get some additional estimates on the work that needs to be done today, and we'll start with the replacements on Monday.  Oi.  Hope everyone stays cool this weekend!