Or, the big chill part 2.

The furnace died. It's more than 20 years old; might actually be pushing 25.

I've pulled out all the blankets I could find.

(insert teeth chattering emoticon here)

Oh no!

Are you concerned about the pipes?

It’s been warmer here the last few days, though temps will be in the 20s tonight. There’s only one place where pipes run in an outside wall; I don’t think they’ll freeze but I’m letting that faucet trickle overnight. Cheap insurance.

Bedroom went down to 59. Turned on a space heater in the kitchen this morning and got the temp in here up to the mid-60s.

Having another cup of hot tea while awaiting the arrival of the repair guy.

Are you able to get someone in today?

Yup, between 9 am and noon.

The guy who was our regular tech for years now works in the office. We got to be friends and I have his cell so I texted him this morning. He's the best tech and the most honest, nice guy you could imagine. He helped us with great info about the boiler we had in Door County, even though it had nothing to do with him or the company he works for.

I asked him this morning if we should be considering replacement with a furnace this age, and he immediately replied "Let's see if it's cost effective to fix it. There's nothing out there nearly as reliable as what you have now."

I'm thinking it's the main blower motor. The circuit breaker popped yesterday morning. We reset it and everything seemed fine all day. About 8 last night I thought it felt a little cool. We realized the furnace was trying to fire up but kept shutting down. When I try to turn the fan on from the thermostat, nada happens.

I have to say I'm very grateful it happened now rather than a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure they were swamped with service calls then. And pipes freezing might have been a real issue. We would have had to shut off the water and drain the whole house....

Yikes, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this!! But yes, glad for the silver lining of timing!

Good luck!!

Verdict is in: Fried blower control circuit board and bad blower motor, both original parts in a 25 year old furnace.

After considering the cost of replacing these two parts, plus the possibility of having to replace other parts in the not too distant future, we decided to go with a new furnace (and new humidifier - this one is 35 years old). If a couple more things failed, we could end up sinking close to the new cost of a furnace in no time. Our tech guy said the new stuff isn't as reliable (no matter which manufacturer you go with), but trying to get many more years out of what we have probably isn't a good bet.

The furnace is currently sort of working so we aren't shivering. With the fan set to ON (running constantly), the furnace is going on and off and maintaining the temperature but it could hiccup anytime. Our HVAC company brought a couple of space heaters over that we can use if the furnace fails again and won't come back on. Supposed to be in the 50s most of the weekend, so I think we'll be OK.

Pays to ask...3% off if we pay by check, 5% if we pay cash.

I was surprised by how much our gas bill dropped when we changed out a 20+ year old furnace a few years back, and we didn't even buy the more expensive condensing kind.

Our winter gas bill dropped by more than half.