Warning! Carbon Monoxide

I am typing this from my mother-in-law's laptop.  We've evacuated from our house for the second time in less than 24 hours!  It seems like major house issues always happen while my husband is away for deer hunting.

Yesterday we visited my mom most of the day (my husband and my dad are hunting together).  Charlie decided he wanted to sleep overnight at Grandma's house, but I took the rest of the boys home with me.  As soon as I got out of our van at our house I heard what sounded like our smoke alarm.

Sure enough we got inside and the alarm was going off about every 30 seconds.  But it wasn't the smoke alarm.  It was the carbon monoxide alarm.  We heat our house with a coal/wood furnace.  So far the most irritating thing to me about this method of heating has been the wood smoke smell that is constantly in our house and thereby in our hair and clothes.

Before my husband left for hunting I asked him to change the furnace over from wood to coal.  I thought the coal would be easier to maintain for me while he was gone.

But apparently the fumes from coal are also more toxic.  I'm really not sure what is going on.  The alarm never went off while we were using wood.

Anyway, I'm very fortunate that 1.  My sister in law lives next door and 2.  My mother and father in law live two doors down.  I first got the kids out of the house and took them to my sister in law.  I opened doors and windows in my house and called my father in law to see if he could come help me check the furnace.

It appeared that one of the seals was slightly loose on the furnace door.  But, we really didn't know if this was enough to let out enough gases to set off the alarm.

I wasn't comfortable sleeping in the house with the children last night, so we had a sleepover at my inlaws.  This morning my father in law checked our house again.  Everything seemed fine and the alarm wasn't going off.

The boys and I decided to head home, but after being there about an hour the alarm started sounding again.  And, we once again evacuated to my inlaw's house

I am frustrated.  This is one of those times that I really don't like living in an older home.  We continue to use this type of heating because we save a good deal of money.  But, right now I'm feeling willing to pay extra to have a thermostat on the wall that I can just turn to the temperature I like and be done with it. 

And, I want to feel safe in my own home!

This wasn't the post I had planned for today, but I really needed to vent.  Thanks for 'listening'.  Hopefully, I'll soon be back in my house and I can prepare the happy, fun post with pictures that I'd planned.

Have a great day!