Well, after a somewhat down time, things are on the upswing right now:
- Our new air conditioner has been installed – contact me if you need a good HVAC contractor – it’s good to be home!
- Finally posted both our S2000 and our Accord up for sale. We’ve had healthy interest in both, which is great – it appears that they will sell soon. We hope so!
- We are making good progress finding a tenant to rent our house – I don’t want to say any more quite yet.
- Elina was able to get off the crutches after only two days and her foot is much better.
- I’m almost done with a
project that I had been putting off. - We had a good father’s day yesterday – Elina’s pop was happy with his gifts, and we had a nice talk with her Grampa in Paris.
… and that’s enough for now, don’t want to tempt fate!
Thanks to everyone for putting up with my whining!
Long time reader first time poster……..HAHAHA
Who is the HVAC guy you used? Thank G-d (beli ayin hara) we are good but its always good to have one up your sleeve. We are really going to miss you guys,……..and on that note start compiling a list and some good dates for our going away bash………
I saw your ads in the sun……nice. Good Luck with everything. Nothing BUT love for ya…
Mike, our HVAC guy is Yankie Gertz of Chill Out Heating and Air Conditioning. He has an ad in the Advertiser and his phone number is 41-764-6588. His references checked out great and he’s been great to work with.
I’ll get back to you about the party – thanks! All our love!
Thanks for the info. I am thinking we should be proactive…..our water heater and furnace are pretty old…thinking about just replacing it now (during the off-season) instead of scrabbling when it breaks….
Mike, actually I’m not sure now really is a slow season… because all the heat people also do AC. I think Fall and Spring are slower, because that’s when temperatures aren’t at extremes. I do think it’s a great idea for you guys to proactively replace equipment that’s reached or nearing its end-of-life, especially after our recent experience with our air conditioner and water heater.
For the furnace, I recommend that you call Yankie and tell him what you have in mind, and ask him if you could get a better deal if you had him do it in the fall. He could probably cut you a better deal then.
As for the water heater, I’d like to strongly urge you to consider installing a tankless water heater. That’s what I wanted to do, but our old heater died before I was finished my research, and we had no time. I am still galled by that.
It is difficult to find information on tankless water heaters in the USA right now because the energy companies and the companies that manufacture water heaters don’t want them here – because they use less energy and last longer, which means those companies would make less money. Somehow they manage to suppress them from becoming widely available.
They are a little more expensive, but they save money in the long run, by using much less energy and by lasting at least twice as long as tanks.
The unit I would recommend is the Bosch Aquastar 240FX. It’s manufactured for Bosch by Takagi, and it’s the same as the Takagi T-K1, so if you find someone selling a Takagi, that’s fine too. I’m seeing it on various websites for about $875, but I’ve seen it sell new/sealed on eBay for under $500.
Here’s some links:
http://www.controlledenergy.com/
http://www.houseneeds.com/shop/HeatingProducts/WaterHeating/t-k1/t-k1buy.htm
http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?prod_id=162255
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=170952-1136-240FX%20NG
Finally, there’s a lot of ignorance out there about these things, so your average Home Depot or Lowes guy or contractor won’t necessarily know much about them.
If you want to talk to someone who has one, or check it out in action, call my brother – he has the 240FX in his house and swears by it.
It might be a not-inconsiderable amount of work to research this, but I think it would ultimately prove worthwhile – and now’s a great time since you do have some time before you need a unit installed.
Let me know what you think!
Later,
Avi
Thanks for info. I am in the process of checking into them. In regards to price they are about double….but well worth it in the long run.
M