Warning! Geeky home repair story ahead. You have been warned.

For the past few days, our HVAC system has been on the fritz. It seems that the outside unit would come on, but there was no air flow from the inside blower. Turns out that the thermostat would call for A/C, but the furnace’s inducer motor relay would click on and off erratically, along with the blower motor. Since the inducer motor is only turned on to purge the furnace when the heat is turned on, it seemed that (a) the thermostat had gone bad, or (b) the thermostat wiring to the furnace had a short.

I guessed that it was the latter and not the former, mainly because I knew that the wiring was cloth-insulated and at least 40-50 years old. Plus, even if it wasn’t the wiring, new wiring is still cheaper than buying another programmable thermostat (the one I had was less than a year old). So, at 9:45 PM, I dashed off to Lowe’s, bought 30 feet of 18/7 thermostat wiring, and started rewiring. I finished up around half-past midnight, and it all worked. I know that Michelle will be happy considering that her classroom had no A/C today, and she had to come home to a house with no A/C, either.

The best part was threading the new wiring behind the plaster walls. I had to use the old wiring to help pull the new wiring through. And I am openly praising God that there was an electrical outlet on the baseboard on the other side of the wall to help with the threading, otherwise it probably would not have been done tonight.

Tomorrow (er, later today) I have to finish dressing the new thermostat wiring around the furnace and re-connect the wall outlet that I removed from the wall. For now, it’s time to sleep.

Cost of repair: $9.30 for wiring, plus 2 1/2 hours less sleep. All thanks to my dad, who taught me how to fix stuff (or, at the very least, how not to be afraid to try to fix stuff).