June
2008
Good Grief8
While we were still up at the PICU, at the beginning of April, our furnace died. The guy came and fixed it, to the tune of $ridiculous-amt-for-30m-work (… reminding me I’d better check if I actually saw that bill and paid it) but told us probably we would need a new furnace and suggested it would cost us on the order of $4500. The fix lasted about a week before it went kablooey again, but we just do not have $4500 lying around. It being the beginning of summer, we elected not to replace it immediately.
Toward the end of May, some debris at the bottom of our oven was causing some concerning sparks so I tried to clean it up. It is self cleaning, but there was enough junk that it seemed like it would need some assistance. But as it turns out, the heating element at the bottom of the oven had somehow disintegrated and pretty much fell apart as soon as I touched it. Lovely. So we used the microwave and the grill for several weeks, until one of us could finally get out and price new stoves. We finally got a replacement last week to the tune of $420 which we also did not really have.
And now, the dryer may be acting up. Or rather, is definitely acting up. Why, I do not know. Unlike the furnace and the oven, the dryer we actually purchased new when we moved in. It’s only 5 years old, so it shouldn’t really be on the verge of collapse. Probably we’ll have to replace it too (with what money?).
My biggest fear is that the AC will die, and to get that repaired/replaced will probably cost not quite as much as the new furnace, but close. Being up at Dartmouth for 8 months out of the past 11 has been a real financial strain on us, and even though some family members have been more than generous, it’s still very stressful to have to worry about replacing all of these big items one after another.
When added to all the puking this weekend, which is enough on its own to have us tearing our hair out, it’s just not shaping up to be the best of weeks.