basement boss defeated!

If you read from winter/spring 2023 until spring 2024, you’re familiar with my furnace anxiety. Quick summary for new readers and anyone who doesn’t want to scroll back through*:

Just before Christmas 2022 the wee demon and I had to emergency evacuate our home because the furnace decided to kill us all by leaking carbon monoxide. We were fine, but the furnace had to go.

Did I mention Kentucky was just starting to climb out of a week of subzero temps? And many many many people had damage from burst water pipes? So a great few weeks for lots of folks.

I did get a new furnace. That I absolutely could not afford. The panels to get at the innards, which let’s face it is just the filter for me, opened very differently from the previous furnace.

And I am not mechanically gifted in any way. I can follow very clear, simple, step-by-step directions as come with modular furniture. Even then I’m very pleased with myself when I actually end up with a sturdy piece of whatever.

The first time I changed the filter I had a really hard time with the three screws. Then the two panels wouldn’t budge even tho I unscrewed everything I could find. Then both panels suddenly popped open. (Which at the time felt like they both almost exploded outward and on to my lap.)

I changed out the filter but could not figure out how to get everything back. The panels wouldn’t line up right with the screw holes or each other. I spent close to half an hour fighting it. I was panicked and crying. And in the end the best I could do was balance and screw all of the bits as best I could, then tape the big open bit at the top with hvac tape. And hope I wasn’t slowly poisoning Torii and me again.

And it’s been a huge anxiety trigger every time I’ve changed the filter.

A gas inspector here for unrelated reasons actually changed the filter for me back in April or maybe May. And of course he made it look easy. I tried to watch exactly what he did, but had no faith in my ability to recreate it.

I have put off changing the filter since. (It’s a three-month filter, so that’s only kinda bad, not super crazy bad.)

Until today.

I bought magnetic screwdrivers for better control and because I have a habit of dropping the screws and then they disappear forever because that basement floor is a black hole. I took my phone so I could take pics at each step. I wore my glasses on the off chance that might help. And I remembered one vital detail from the spring: the upper panel slightly overhangs the lower.

Actually I knew that from my very first attempt but I couldn’t make it work. The gas inspector confirmed I was right all along.

And . . . I did it.

The new screwdriver helped. My glasses did not. I couldn’t take any useful pics because there’s only about eighteen inches between the back panels and a wall.

But I logicked through it. I got it apart and back together correctly. Hopefully with the filter in right. Then I drew myself a diagram and wrote out the steps for the next time.

Also, I’m not in the middle of a horrible anxity that’s just always ready to leap on the least frustration to take me down.

I did it. And more importantly I know I can do it.

*And why not? I’m a fucking delight to reread.