May 22, 2023 - May 24, 2023 ----- We Had to Get a New WaterFurnace; Painting Church Hall Handicapped Lines; Getting Rid of the Last Tube TV

Two weeks ago we noticed that the air-conditioning was not working in the house. The blower and compressor would come on but no cool air. The thermostat flashed indicating a problem. I called Schumer Bros. and they sent Jeremy out the same day to look at it. Jeremy has worked on this unit several times over the years. The last two years the freon would be low. Once a year Jeremy would put enough in to make it work. Each time he did he told me we needed a new unit. This time when he checked there was absolutely no freon in the system at all. We now had a major leak. The system is 29 years old. The furnace has had the motherboard replaced, the motherboard "hotwired" for another fix, and freon added on a yearly basis for about four years. The unit is not worth repairing. While bracing myself for the cost of a new unit, I was shocked to learn that a new system installed would be $19,313.00. They indicated two weeks to get a new unit and a day or two to install it. There was only one unit in the warehouse, so I put money down to immediately get it ordered before some other company picked it up. The wait time for more units to be made and/or delivered to the warehouse was unknown. They said commercial units are running sixteen weeks out. Crazy!

Luckily the first week that we were without air-conditioning we were at the campout I described in the previous blog. We got home from the campout on Friday and they called and advising that they had the new unit at the shop and could install it on Monday if that worked. It worked just fine! It took them two days to tear out the old system and to put in a new one. They assured me that there have been many improvements over the last 29 years in the WaterFurnace and that our electric bill should go down about 25%. Also, upon installing this unit, we will receive a $5,000 federal tax credit on our 2023 taxes.  As of yesterday evening the new unit is up and running. Here is a picture. You can see all the pipes on the floor that connect to the underground pipes outside that heat and cool the house with a huge heat pump and heat the domestic hot water.

We had a new a/c-furnace unit installed in the house in Florida before we left and now this one at home. I shouldn't have to buy another a/c-furnace unit in my lifetime!

While the WaterFurnace was being installed on Monday I helped John paint new lines for the handicapped space at the Friedenberg Lutheran Church Hall. This small, historical church facility in Perry County no longer has regular services but it has a nice hall which is rented out to the public for various activities. John is on the Board of Directors and works hard to keep the facilities in top shape. The handicapped lines had all worn off, so they needed to be repainted. Here is a picture of the newly painted lines. Using a wooden guide John made it only took about an hour to paint everything.

I can't paint anything without getting paint on me. For this job I was using a roller on a pole. So while I didn't get any paint on me, I did manage to step in the wet paint and get paint on both shoes.

After the painting project we made a trip to the recycling center. We had a pickup bed full of recyclables plus I wanted to recycle our last "tube" TV, which has been in the basement for a number of years. It had about a 32-inch screen so it was big and heavy. John helped me get it in the back of the HHR. The recycling center will accept these TVs for a charge of $10.00 to get rid of the gas in the tube. I hate to get rid of things that work fine but no one would watch the old, pre-HD TV, including me. The impetus for getting rid of it now was that a week or two ago my daughter Alexa's friend, Aaron, gave me a 42-inch Samsung flat screen. It works fine but has a black line or two across the screen. Even with a couple of black horizontal lines it is a great improvement over the old "tube". Now I can watch something different while Kelly watches the cooking and baking shows in the evenings. 

We had purchased two recliners for the fifth wheel a couple of years ago and took out the loveseat-recliners that came with it. The loveseat-recliners have been in the basement ever since. I have now put them to good use. Here is a picture of the setup. Now if I could just watch TV without falling asleep!

My next focus is on finding a replacement truck. I only need a 1/2 ton truck for pulling the trailer with the lawnmower on it, or the golf cart, out to the lake and back. All the used trucks I have seen online have very high mileage. I hate shopping for vehicles that's why I keep my vehicles for a long time.