A/C Battle

I've taken quite a few pictures of our upstairs a/c unit. SO, a couple of months ago we were struck by lightning. I thought it was a gunshot, but then the flash of light that filled the windows clued me in. At first we thought, Woooo, cool that we saw lightning. But then a bunch of stuff in our house stopped working. Our tv upstairs - dead. The wii- dead. The internet - dead. The intercom system - dead. The security system - dead. The antenna - fried. The a/c was still working, but the thermostat was acting weird. After a few days the thermostat upstairs starting working again but the a/c downstairs couldn't cool the house very well (we tried testing it) and so we thought it was the thermostat. 

A guy was recommended by a neighbor and he came and looked at it. He replaced the thermostat. NO difference. He came back and said we had to bypass a board that might be causing it. NO difference. He then found that our freon was really low. He replaced it for about $400 and then said there might be a leak but it should be fine for awhile. Well, he should have checked for a leak. That $400 was gone in a week. No freon, hot house, and now we remember that we have a home warranty. 

We were so relieved! Turns out we have a leak and need our evaporator coil replaced. Nothing to do with the lightning. We just didn't notice before because of the upstairs unit. Kind of stinks that it happened right after we bought the house! Pretty expensive repair. Well, our relief was short lived. DO NOT BUY A HOME WARRANTY. Luckily, the sellers bought ours, but honestly we didn't save that much. If the repair costs less than what you paid, then they will cover it, if it is over it, they get around it by paying contractors nothing and then the contractors jack up their prices and you get to pay the difference. Ben has been on the phone with both companies for the past two weeks trying to figure this out. They offerred us a cash out option which was 1/5 of the actual cost. I laughed OUT loud when they told us. Ben was very good at communicating with them kindly but letting them know they are dishonest on all sides. They still ended on a good note. Totally Ben right? Turns out, everyone just gets hosed in the end. We are paying 70% of the repair. Not to mention we get to have a hot downstairs for another 10 days to add to the 2 months that we've been dealing with this. 

Rant over. I'm grateful that it is not something worse. We are excited to just get it done and move on! There are much better things to focus on!