Thermostat Love

I follow a bunch of blogs. Some friend blogs. Some babyloss blogs. Some decor blogs. Some deal blogs.

Every one once in awhile one of these blogs has a giveaway. I've been known to enter and also win such giveaways. Hey! It's fun receiving mail, especially when I'm getting cool, new, free stuff!

I saw that one of the bloggers I was following had a giveaway for a thermostat. Ours is as old as our home (older than me!), so I figured I would enter because it would be nice to update the ol' thing. This specific thermostat by Honeywell is Wifi enabled and can be programmed from your phone. That would mean no more nights coming home to a 50-degree house or having to trudge downstairs to turn on the heat in the winter. I can just reach over on my nightstand and grab my iPhone. Well, another one of the bloggers I follow posted a giveaway for the same thermostat. And then another! I entered a handful of these and guess what? I won!

Two.

I didn't need two of course, so I asked the giveaway host if she wouldn't mind sending it to my friend for her to have. I knew she'd love it and would find it valuable since she works in the city and is quite busy.

We both received our thermostats on the same day and were excited to get them installed. I'd say my husband was more eager than me, since I've been totally sleep-deprived lately. He headed downstairs to the basement when the kids went down to bed last week to work on the electrical wiring for the thermostat. And there it was.

HUMMMMMMMM.

The sound of a failed sump pump. With thunderstorms imminent that evening. At this point, it was 9:53 p.m. and hardware stores closed in 7 minutes. We had a backup sump pump waiting to be installed just sitting there. But unfortunately, we were missing about $10 in pipe fittings and could not change it without those pieces. It was either a flooded basement (honestly, I'm so over basements that's I just assume fill it with concrete) or a 24-hr plumber (cha-ching).

The plumber got a phonecall and came over within the hour. We've used him once before and curse his name when he leaves. He's just not very nice. The husband got to work removing the old sump pump and saving us a little extra cash for doing some of the dirty work that would have cost us more. The plumber was here exactly 56 minutes, including the time he tried to sell us a different sump pump from his truck. It was a piece of cake and $390. Plumbers make bank. Not ideal to pay that much for a simple task, but imagine what it would've cost if our basement flooded?

And we have that freebie thermostat to thank for the savings of further damage. Not a drop of water in the basement.

Fits in my hand and clearly smaller than the former beast. Just a wee bit of sanding, filling & painting necessary

*Wasn't paid by Honeywell to write this, but they sent me a free, AMAZING thermostat and the story was good enough to share!