Heating woes....

Ah, boilers. Our knowledge of these beasts is sketchy which posed a bit of a problem yesterday upon returning home from Michigan. We turned the gas to the boiler back on, lit the pilot, raised the thermostat and wait for it, wait for it....okay, stop waiting. Nothing happened. In theory, the burner is supposed to light up when the thermostat is set higher than current indoor temperature heating the water which then flows through the pipes and radiators thus heating the house. The sellers bought a home warranty for us which basically means if things break (plumbing, heating, appliances, etc) we pay a flat fee of $60 per visit to the professionals that the warranty company contracts with and they fix what is needed. If the cost of the repair is over $60 it saves us money to use the warranty.

I called the house warranty company and finally got in touch with the heating/cooling "professional" they contract with in the area. He was condescending given that I do not have a Y chromosome and would not be able to come out until Monday. He said he'd call me Monday morning to see what time. Really, we can't plan ahead? Oh yeah, and the temp is supposed to be low of 40 this weekend. Awesome. I know it is Friday afternoon at this point but seriously?

Being pro-active and a bit ticked off, I dig out the copy of the bill that the sellers gave us at closing to show work had been done...and found the name of their heating/cooling guy, Gordon. Left message with address, problem, etc. When I hadn't heard back from Gordon by Friday night, my father-in-law tried to trouble-shoot and help my figure out the system. (Oh yeah, Chris had to leave for work about 10 minutes after we figured out we had a problem, therefore, I was left in charge to *handle* the issue.) I read through the gas burner conversion manual (circa 1954) with no new ideas; however, now I know what parts are what. So, we decided to use a few borrowed space-heaters and dig out more blankets and long underwear for the night.

We survived Friday night (obviously, since I am writing this on Saturday) and awoke to a phone call from Gordon's wife saying they were sorry they didn't get back to us sooner but they were out of town yesterday (and still were). She said they'd be back in the early afternoon and would call me then to help us out. Get this, she said Gordon may be able to help me over the phone if it was because we weren't familiar with the system because he was very familiar with our boiler and has been doing all the maintenance on it for years. Years. Wonderful. This is what I love about small towns and small businesses. They get to know you (the previous owners and soon to be us) and they are friendly, providing good customer service. Too many people do not realize the importance of customer service. Even if you are cheaper, if you are condescending and don't even pretend to care I will take my money and business elsewhere even if I have to pay more.

I am currently waiting for Gordon's call, cleaning up the place so he doesn't think we trashed the place...since he has previous visits to compare it too. Hopefully, it will be something simple.