Have you ever had something that you usually always have, and the minute you don’t have it you feel like you took it for granted and you wish you were more thankful for it? Well, I learned that lesson this week. Let’s just say this was not the best week–it actually started out all wrong. We woke up Monday morning to a slightly cold house. Seth went downstairs and turned up the heat. I proceeded to get the children dressed. Finally, Seth left for work–I am still getting everyone ready. Within a few minutes, I smelled smoke and ran downstairs following my nose which led me to the basement. I immediately see the inside of our gas boiler on fire. I panic and call Seth. Meanwhile as I’m talking to him on the phone–he gets pulled over by a cop for talking to me on his cell phone. Great! Anyway, he tells me he turning around and not to touch the boiler. So….I wait for a second and am pacing and panicking. Seth is taking too long, so I call our gas company. They arrive almost at the same time Seth arrives. Immediately, they shut everything down and ask me where my carbon monoxide detectors are–good question. I know I have one but can’t find it. I do remember setting one up in our house when we moved in. Anyway, the gas guy proceeds to tell us that it would of been a matter of minutes and we would of died from carbon monoxide poisoning! The levels in the house exceeded by a 100 points over the regulatory level! Very, very dangerous! Whoa this was a sure slap to the face–a wake up call to make sure my detector is positioned in the right place and checked often to make sure it works. Talk about being watched over! Wow! I have been sending numerous prays of gratitude for the protection of me and my children. And many thanks that this incident happened in the morning time and not at night when we were sleeping. What a blessing.
Well, after the boiler was turned off, the gas company red tagged it with “danger”sign, told us we had to get it fixed, and they were the only ones who could turn it back on. And off they went, leaving behind two small space heaters. We had no heat for three days! Thank goodness it wasn’t below freezing outside, but we are still in the winter months up here in the northeast. We were cold and missed our warm house. So, why did it take so long to fix? The lovely thing about living in an old house is that most things in the house are old too–like our boiler. It was over 40 years old! We were trying to figure out whether to fix it and get a few more years out of it or replace it. And through must research, estimates and talking to a lot of technicians, we felt that the best and safest thing to do was replace the boiler with a new one. And those suckers are not cheap! Looks like no renovation jobs will be done this year—boohoo. But updating the boiler needed to be done. And let me tell you–we feel like we are living in luxury now. We’ve got heat and it heats fast and efficient. My stove cooks the food really fast. Oh, how we missed our heat. And I hear that our $390 gas bill will decrease since we have a more efficient boiler.
So, the moral of the story is–everyone should have a carbon monoxide detector (even if you have a new house or a new boiler). Know where the detector is. Check the batteries twice a year during Day Light Saving Time or get one that plugs into an outlet. Always pray for gratuity of your life and your family and the simple stuff like heat!
{editor’s note: I think this is my longest post! Sorry for the long read.}
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