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Our furnace had a stroke two Saturday nights ago — the pilot light went out and wouldn’t relight.

I was 99% sure that it was the thermocouple (our furnace has a history of eating at least one every season). The hell if I was going to pay $150+ for a weekend ($$) night ($$$$) service call, so with a little help from Google, a trip to Home Depot, and by channeling MacGyver, I successfully resuscitated the monster…

… until Tuesday morning, when we woke up to a 60′F house. brrrrrrrrr

All Seasons Heating and Cooling officially pronounced her dead about three hours later when their equipment detected a trace of carbon monoxide when she fired up. A cracked heat exchange did her in. Perfect timing too, as it was going to be in the low 20’s by Thursday, which gave me a whole day to get estimates, choose a contractor, and get a new HVAC installed.

$3,900 later, we’re the proud new owners of a Trane XL80 multi-stage variable speed furnance and an 11-SEER AC unit.

Here’s a special shoutout to a buddy from work — Tony C. Tony’s a Cisco networking guy who also plays a master electrician / knower-of-everything-home-related (when he thinks nobody is looking). Thanks to Tony (who pulled some strings with some of his buddies), we were able to get a Trane system (think BMW quality) for $3,900 (think Hyundia price). I had gotten two other estimates, both of which were for THOUSANDS more for a lot less quality equipment.

So as much as I’d like to bitch about how much it sucks to have to drop $4K out of the blue, thanks to Tony, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise…