This is a picture from the internet. It’s a furnace that’s extremely old and resembles the one in our current rental house. Some people call it The Octopus. No joke. Well, at 2 a.m. this morning, a loud noise woke me up. Charley was wandering around our bedroom and I couldn’t figure out what the noise was. Eventually, I fell back asleep (after waking Andrew up and asking him if he heard the noise, too….he didn’t).
2:49, I woke up again. Something smelled weird. I tried to run things through my head….the heat was up higher than normal due to the sub-zero temperature, but it had never smelled like this before. It didn’t smell like gasoline or anything weird, but it was definitely a strong and unusual scent. Andrew eventually woke up since I was wiggly and so was Charley. He smelled the scent and we decided to head downstairs to check it out.
I peeked my head down the stairs and saw that the carpet was wet. Something was leaking. We realized that a pipe was leaking above the furnace….dripping on the furnace…and making it smell. We shut off the water to the pipe and put a bucket underneath it. There was already about 2 inches of water on the concrete floor around the furnace and laundry area….and plenty more seeped into the carpeted hallway. UGH.
We got bundled up and brought the shop-vac inside from the garage (Andrew walked through the dark snowy yard to the garage…at 3 a.m…to get a shop vac). Are ya laughing yet? So, we cleaned up for about an hour. Vacuumed the carpet, hauled the vac back up the stairs to dump out the water…vacuumed some more, set up a fan to dry the carpet, and finally went back to sleep. (After begging Charley to come back inside…he was terrified of the vacuum cleaner). Phew.
5:00 a.m….I hear an ear-piercing beep. Charley starts to bark. He never barks. The beep continues once every 30 seconds. Andrew wakes up and we head back downstairs to see what it is….the carbon monoxide alarm. Uh oh! Neither of us know what to do. I tried to reset it, then got on the computer to google “signs of carbon monoxide poisoning”. I also looked up the number to poison control. We donn’t have any weird symptoms, but are left wondering why the alarm is going off. And we still aren’t sure about the source of the odd smell.
Poison control tells Andrew to get everyone out of the house, get in the car, and call the fire department. I’m in cue little jcrew boxers, snow boots, and a hoodie. We get in the car and call the fire department (it’s about 5:15 at this point). p.s…it’s below 0 degrees outside. The fire trucks show up within a few minutes…turn the wrong way onto our street (glad our house wasn’t burning). About 5 fireman go into the house with Andrew while I sit in the car with Charley. After a few minutes, they all come back out….our alarm needs new batteries. Ooopsy! 
Andrew and I are so tired and delirious at this point. He told me that he was embarrassed when the guys were downstairs staring at the monstrosity of a furnace…and he told them that it’s called an Octopus! hahaha I was dying laughing. I’m assuming the fan made the alarm go off? Anyways…guess what we did….we drove to Starbucks (and then McDonalds so my skinny*ss boyfriend could eat some food). It’s now 8:30…I’m showered, dressed, and reading to teach and I’m ready to crawl back into bed!!!
Here’s to being thankful that despite the hectic morning, we are safe and sound. I hope this day does not creep by like the morning already has! Hope you enjoyed the story – I wanted to document it somewhere before I forgot all of the details.
Brrrrr I now have my giant coat on inside the classroom. I’m freeeeeezing!!!
