“I made an appointment for someone to come look at the furnace,” I told my wife, knowing her family would be staying with us over the Thanksgiving holiday. There wasn’t anything malfunctioning with the furnace, but because it’s our first winter in our first house, I wanted to make sure everything was in good working order. Plus, when your in-laws are from Africa, you want to make sure they’ll feel comfortable in your Minnesotan home.

We purchased our house at the end of April, and our home inspector did say our furnace could use a cleaning. When our technician came this week, he shared a few more specifics about our appliance. While it is still in good, working order, it is well past its traditional life cycle. Nothing to be concerned about, he reassured me as I began to ask for prices on replacing it. Perhaps like many of you, once something has the possibility of going wrong, it normally does in my life.

While the inspection did cost a bit more than I initially predicted, it was well worth the expense. Apparently our system was putting out double the recommended amount of carbon monoxide, which was frankly a little scary. The technician was able to adjust it on the spot, thus alleviating any worries we may have had. Plus, he shared with us that there are plenty of rebates for people having inspections and new installations in their home. The heating system tune-up we received had a rebate of $35 — a great incentive for making sure all was well. You can find all of the rebates and programs online at www.minnesotaenergyresources.com. It’s worth spending five minutes browsing around to see how you and your home can benefit.

Flash forward to one day after the inspection, and Sera and I arrive home from work to a colder-than-normal house. Due to my thriftiness, we normally keep the house cooler than most would prefer. There’s always a blanket on the couch and socks on our feet to make sure we’re warm without wasting money on heating a whole house when we’re only using a few rooms. I remember vowing I’d never do this as a high schooler in my parent’s basement. Why would someone ever decide to live uncomfortably in their own home? How little I knew back then.

It took about an hour before I began to realize something wasn’t right. My typically cold nose was feeling a little too chilled, and the tile on our kitchen floor getting too cold for our sock-covered feet to cross over. A quick check of the thermostat revealed we were at 57 degrees, despite being set to 62 degrees Fahrenheit. It turns out that those five degrees make all the difference.

Was our furnace really failing less than 24 hours after it had been inspected? Was our house really not being heated when my in-laws would be arriving within 30 minutes? Isn’t this exactly what I just paid money to prevent from occurring? It was now after 5 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving. Any assistance I received would certainly be through an “emergency” phone call to yesterday’s furnace company, which surely wouldn’t be cheap. I impatiently glanced at the thermostat while greeting my wife’s parents and welcoming them into our home. We all kept our coats on long after unloading their car before I broke down and called for help.

Mind-blowingly frustrated, I learned assistance was nearly an hour away by car. A new technician decided to try to talk me through some quick things to check in the system before making a commitment to actually drive to our house. After switch breakers, turning knobs and pushing buttons (each with bated breath, hoping the house wouldn’t explode), the furnace was finally back on. Apparently the technician from the prior day simply forgot to turn the gas line back on — how convenient. Our house was feeling warm again by the end of our pre-Thanksgiving meal and my racing heart was beginning to thaw.

I now know, on a very basic level, how the furnace operates and how to troubleshoot various problems with it. I didn’t think that would be something on my things-to-be-thankful-list on Wednesday, but it was definitely added in time for Thanksgiving on Thursday. It turns out there’s always something additional for which to be thankful.

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.