Heating woes, again....

Yesterday morning the house was 64 even though we have it set to be 68 by the time I wake up in the morning - and our good old Nest is usually smart enough to have the timing figured out. I thought maybe the cold front had it confused.

Then when I came home from work this evening the house was just shy of 60. But Nest said it was heating so I assumed it had really mis-estimated.

Until I realized the baseboards were cold...

Uh-oh...

Well it turns out there is a reset button:

I was afraid to hit it, but D was willing to take the chance.  Turns out, it worked better than this reset button at least. Unnerving, but at least it seemed to get everything running again.

We actually had already called our local heating guy, who lives nearby and was willing to come take a look. He fiddled with the pressure release valve which was leaking a little water. But otherwise, it seemed ok

I'm worried, though, because my super-sensitive nose has detected a smell of oil in the basement on and off for a few days. And finally D could just barely smell it too, today. We are going to call the person that serviced our furnace this year and ask if he had calibrated the burner because maybe it's not burning efficiently, or something.

I don't know, but it's definitely a scary sign as we begin the winter heating season.

The guy who came to look at our heater today didn't charge because, as D says, 1. he's nice and 2. he is trying to convince us to convert to natural gas (and have him do it). He mentioned today that converting to gas, which would include a water heater and furnace, would cost $11,300. D did the cost/benefit analysis a few years ago and decided it wasn't worth it with the savings in oil and electricity. We do use a lot more heat now, post-baby...Decisions decisions. Well at least when the heat is working, it works in every room of the house.

In other basement-related news, we took advantage of one long nap from the baby to rearrange our furniture. We really like it - it gives us some extra floor space that is more or less "baby-safe" and a good spot for taking photos. Our next goal for the room is to paint the accent wall and then buy new shelving. Maybe we can get it done before the New Year!

This is a really old "before" picture but it's the only one I could find - fast forward to where we have the extra storage shelving, a treadmill where that Nordic Track is, the Elliptical on the other side of the sofa, no TV, etc. But it gives you an idea of how we rearranged everything.