Rebecca August 28th Update

Unexpected Situation #1

About two weeks ago we woke up and the hall carpet on either side of our heater closet was super wet. We tried for like an hour to figure out if the water was coming from the heater or drain pipes because that closet is full of things that could potentially leak water.

We took a guess that it could be the heater and the heater guys came out to look at it. They said they couldn’t find anything wrong with it but it sound like the air conditioner (AC) compressor was freezing up and then melting and causing the flooding.

We thought maybe it was caused by us putting magnet covers over a lot of our basement vents a few weeks before to try to even out the temperature in the house since it’s generally about 10 degrees hotter upstairs so we’re always hot upstairs and freezing downstairs this time of year.

So we took the magnets off to try to help the airflow. We also thought maybe it was from high humidity caused by all my plants so we got a little dehumidifier and opened the windows in the morning to try to let the humidity out.

About a week later we had the same flood happen. Ugh. So we can had another person from the heating place come out again and talk about why the air compressor would be freezing and some possible solutions.

He said our system is a two-ton system and 11 years old, which was fine before we added on but now we needed at least a three-ton system so the system was just overworked. The AC would run all day non-stop and we would still be hot upstairs and Norm was burning up in his office.

Rather than get a whole new system for like $15k, we decided to tweak some things and see if that would help. We have never had a cold air return in the basement so we added one in the hall near the heater and made the vent going into the filter wider. They also made the duct going into Norm’s office an inch larger. This was supposed to help with airflow to prevent the air compressor from freezing and to also help even out the temperature between the two floors.

He said even with a new system it would still always be a lot colder downstairs than upstairs so to help with that problem we decided to add a ductless mini-split in our kitchen. They are super efficient with energy. The idea is to cool down the upstairs with it and then the whole house AC will hardly ever have to run.

It was working well, except when Norm was in his office and the whole house system doesn’t turn on so it was 81 degrees in his office, so we were having to have the whole house system use the sensor in his office so when he’s working I would turn off the ductless mini split and people in the basement freeze.

Well, all that was sort of working (and cost $8,000), and then we started getting flooding every night. Ugh. We we called the heating guys AGAIN because between Norm getting up in the night while water was flooding everywhere and him showing me the problem, we figured out that the PVC pipe drain from the air compressor to the pump was clogged or something.

So now when the heater people came out AGAIN we had a much better idea of what the problem was and we think they finally found and fixed the problem. The pipe that goes down into the pump was too tall so it was creating a seal in the pump and not letting any water come out of the pipe so it was backing up. The pipe was also full of tons of calcium deposits. So he cleaned all that up and cut the pipe and didn’t charge us anything for it.

Knock on wood since it has only been two days but it hasn’t flooded and the whole system seems to be working much better. Currently, the upstairs is 76, Norm’s office is 73, and the downstairs is 70. But the whole house system is running a lot less and we are much more comfortable in the kitchen area – especially in the evening when we are cooking.

It sure is a lot of money we really didn’t have and we’re slightly annoyed they couldn’t find the problem in the first place – but we’re hoping to get this behind us since we have a few other problems to figure out.

Here’s a picture of the mini-split if you are wondering what it is. It has a remote control and does heating and cooling.

Unexpected Situation #2

Yesterday afternoon Norm went on a Geocaching hike up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville. He couldn’t drive the Prius the last 1.5 miles up the road so he parked it and walked up the road to get to the trailhead. As you can imagine, he took forever and we were starting to get worried after 4 hours of not hearing from him.

So we texted and called him so when he got back to cell signal he would let us know he finished his hike and was on his way home like he normally does.

He didn’t have a cell signal until he was at the mouth of the canyon down across the entrance to Wayne Bartholomew Park so he started to pull into a little parking lot there so he could text or call us. As he slowed down and pulled in, an older full-size van rear-ended him.

Luckily, Norm wasn’t hurt too bad, although he is super sore today and his neck is bothering him. We’re hoping a trip to the chiropractor tomorrow and a few days of rest will fix that.

The other driver was given a ticket so we’re hoping their insurance covers it since we have liability only.

But now we get to spend this week + dealing with insurance companies, only having one car when lots of days we could use three cars lately, maybe getting a rental car if the insurance will pay for it, waiting to hear if they are going to repair our car or total it, and possibly buying a new vehicle in a car market that’s super crazy right now.

We were also hoping to go to Charlotte’s blessing this week but with all this going on we’re just going to have to stay home and probably go car shopping.

We’re trying to figure out if we do have to buy a vehicle which one we would even get because I’m going to be surprised if they don’t total Norm’s Prius. Look at it –

This is what the car market is like now –

• When we looked up the value of the Prius a few years ago it was like $3-5,000. We can’t remember for sure. That’s why we switched to liability only at the time.
• Now Blue Book for the Prius (that is several years older and has a lot more miles) is about $13,000. Crazy.
• So my guess of what happened is the inventory of used cars was really low for a long time and the prices went up really high. So everyone was like, “I can buy a new car for less or not much more than a used car and they are available.” So everyone bought new cars.
• Well, now there are hardly any new cars actually in stock. I looked at the Toyota dealership in Orem and there are about 5 new vehicles actually in stock and they are all over $60,000. All the rest of their vehicles are “in transit.”
• So it’s going to be really hard to buy a new car because they aren’t in stock and we can’t go too long without a second vehicle.
• I could be wrong, but it seems like the prices for the used cars are still high but the inventory is decent, at least compared to new cars, so we may try to get a used car since they are in stock.
• Oh, and the hybrids are especially hard to find in both new and used since there is a shortage of hybrid chips and batteries. And I would really like a hybrid.

So it’s going to be interesting to see how all this shakes out. We’ll keep you updated. Any advice on car buying or dealing with insurance companies? (I already got some good advice from Sam)

What are the Children Up To?

Megan and Tyler started school this week. Lumen doesn’t have a huge selection of classes and Tyler was going to be stuck taking Choir and Interior Design this week.

So his school told me about the SOEP program. With it, you can stay enrolled in any public school or homeschool but take up to four classes part-time at a list of 10 online schools or so and they will transfer to your full-time school.

We looked and Mountain Heights Academy looks like a good fit. Tyler got accepted to take Digital Photography and a Basic Reading class (hopefully really easy for him). He should like them just a little better than choir.

Kayla was listening to Tyler’s orientation and thought it sounded pretty cool so we ended up hurrying and applying for her to take math there. So now she’s taking math at Mountain Heights and the rest of her classes at Lakeridge.

She was able to drop her math class and her math lab so now she gets to go in late to school every other day and take a second choir class.