I taught the baby boy how to bleed our furnace

Tags

bleed systems, furnaces, handyman, postaday2013

My baby boy and I had a very nice bonding moment while I was showing him how to bleed a furnace and explaining why furnaces needed to be bled every once and a while. The next time baby girl is home, I’ll show her as well since it is a good thing to know and it saves you 75 dollars in the process. If the serviceman was to get the 75 dollars, that would be one thing, but he doesn’t get it, it’s the big company that gets the 75 dollars so since I know how to do it, I figure why not keep my dollars and teach my children something useful.

The only reason why I have to bleed the system from time to time and I have gotten quite adept at it is because we have an old, old house. The furnace is quite new but the oil tank is old and the gauge to the tank is broken, I have gone through so many servicemen with their recommendations as to what to do to replace the gauge and the tank and I have not gotten one recommendation that is financially feasible at this time. The entire problem at hand is our oil tank, the previous owner had the tank built into our foundation, so there is one serious issue. A very good solution is to fill the tank with sand and seal it shut. If only it was that easy. 🙂

It is not, over the years the good people at the Mass. Environmental Agency, who I support completely and I am not complaining or criticizing, have instituted many, many regulations and requirements concerning the installation of new oil tanks and the way our basement is configured we are at a loss as to where to put a new tank. So serviceman after serviceman have recommended that we wait a little longer to see if there is a newer technology that will present itself in the future. It is complicated only because we don’t have the thousands and thousands of dollars required to reconfigure the entire basement to meet all the regulations.

So since I never know when we are going to run empty, I find out when the hot water runs cold. The nice oil company filled up the tank and the baby boy and I bled the furnace, all that it means is that you have to locate the nipple to the furnace, take your 3/8 wench and open the nipple to get all the air out of the system by letting oil stream out into a bottle until it runs free of air bubbles, tighten the nipple back up and reset the furnace. As I talked my son through it, he was doing the work and I showed him how to reboot the system if you have problem keeping the furnace running even after having bled the system. It happens every once in a while, all you need to do is press the reset button for a minute until all the flashing lights shut off and you release the button, the furnace starts again.

It does make for a nice feeling of accomplishment when you pass on something useful to your child.

Luxurious

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?

Isn't it funny how everything is relative? One person's necessities could be someone's luxury, an example could be manicures. I for one would put it in the luxury column, where friends of mine would be it under the necessity column. I consider manicures to be a luxury because a I don't care about long nails, mail polish or pretty designs on my nails. I am much more of a tomboy that way.

I guess television would be considered a luxury by some and a necessity by others , I consider it close to a luxury these days, with the price of satellite t.v or even cable t.v., a monthly bill over 100 dollars nowadays can be deemed a luxury as well as a necessity. My friends who follow my blog know just how much I love my t.v. I have rediscovered Farscape and John Cricton and Aeryn Sun, I am looking forward to a new season of Ripper Street and I have been ecstatic with the new season of Bones, I adore Bones and Booth, they are so in love, it warms my heart. So yes television is one of my luxuries.

I don't really think about luxuries, well I suppose an excellent restaurant would be one, but I have been spoiled for so long with all of the business dinners that my hubby brings me to so that I hardly ever think of the price. Staying at hotels would be another luxury but since that too is covered by my hubby's business expenses, I don't consider it a luxury, rather more a necessity since we are always happier at home.

I suppose getting my hair cut and colored could be counted as a luxury and that is certainly one that I would not want to live without only because it makes me feel so good.

Luxury, necessity as long as it makes you feel great about it, isn't that what counts?