I think that this comment on my furnace problems is worth elaborating on:

If you blow yourself up trying to save a few bucks by not hiring someone to do this for you, I don’t want to hear any complaints! Good luck.

It’s not (just) about “saving a few bucks.”

I come from a line of people on my mother’s side who would never think to call someone to fix something that had an obvious solution, and the tools/knowledge to do it. In fact, during the Depression, my grandfather was the guy who got called, doing auto repairs. But he also built his own cabin in northern Michigan on the Muskegon River, and built by hand inboard-motor boats to put in the river, by steaming and bending mahogany, and adapting Chrysler drive trains to put in them, including dashboard instruments. He built them in the basement in northern Flint, and knocked out the wall to get them out when they were complete and ready to be trailered Up North.

My uncle (his son) followed in his footsteps, except that he actually got a college degree (ME from Michigan), and he always (at least until late in life), though he was a well-paid engineering manager at AC Spark Plug, rebuilt his own car engines (back in the days when this had to be done every hundred-thousand miles or so), and his own plumbing and electrical work and drywall (at least after he retired).

My first car, at sixteen, was a used MGA. That summer, I tore it apart and put it back together, to improve the performance and end the blue smoke of the burning oil coming out of the tailpipe, and get smoother gear shifting with new synchros. Before I went to college, I was a professional VW mechanic. I’m just not by nature someone who likes to pay people (and in many cases, trust them) to do things that I think I can do better and cheaper myself. When I was in Florida in May, starting to prepare the house to sell, I got a quote of $500 to replace a leaking hose bib, which involved opening up a block wall, sweating in new copper pipe, then resealing and repainting it. I did the whole job in a couple hours after fifty bucks in tools and parts at Home Depot.

A few weeks ago we had a water leak in the main supply line coming into the house that had the meter swirling like a dervish. We did call a plumber, but a thousand dollars later, while they did a good job (I watched), I regretted not doing it myself. All it would have taken was renting a jack hammer to open up the sidewalk, digging some dirt, cutting out the bad pipe and replacing it, reburying, and replacing the pavement.

Anyway, I assumed that when a furnace failed suddenly, it was likely something simple. I read the service manual, tracked down the problem to an obviously failed igniter, and changed it myself. I have pride in my own ability, and a larger bank account.