People say the nicest things!

We do a lot of work in the fall and this year even more so with so many taking advantage of the 30% tax credit on high efficiency heating and cooling equipment.  So this post is some of the nice things our customers have said about us in the last two months.

We used you before and were very satisfied.  This time you gave us friendly, fast service.  We say thanks to all!                                                                                     Elaine Yaple, Lancaster, Ohio

We only got an estimate from David White Services because of your reputation and the referrals of others.  Everything was well done!  The installation people were very polite, professional, and knowledgable.  They answered my numerous questions well.                                         Joan & Charles Mickelson, Athens, Ohio


You can use me as a referral anytime!  I found you in the yellow pages and bought because of the sales presentation.  Your installers were very polite, neat, and went about their job without bothering anyone.  If they were unsure of what we wanted, they asked.  They were very pleasant.  And we were especially impressed that there was no foul language.                                 Larry Richards, Vincent, Ohio

We got two estimates and you were the lowest.  Several people referred you to me and you have a good reputation.  That and the price made the decision easy.  My overall experience with David White Services was nice.  And Matthew Stallard was a great help!  We thank him.             Yan Ling Cai, The Plains, Ohio

I already was your customer so I only got an estimate from you.  You installed my system when you promised and cleaned up after yourselves.  Your crew was courteous and professional.  They did a very good job.            Ken Midkiff, Guysville, Ohio

Sales rep was very good at explaining our options.  Installers very courteous and helpful.
          Becky Gilham, Lancaster, Ohio

We only got an estimate from you because our friends recommended you.  Your people were friendly, quick, and neat.  Absolutely no complaints.
    Zach Demster, Coolville, Ohio

I only got an estimate from David White.  You came when promised, did a neat installation, and then cleaned up after yourself.                                                                John Burgess, Lancaster, Ohio


We love our customers and they love us back!  It makes going to work every day a joy.  If you are wondering who to buy your next HVAC system from, give us a try and you'll be convinced.  We don't try to sell you a name brand (though we sell great name brands!) we sell you ourselves and our service and our dependability.  Well over 30 years in southeastern Ohio!  We're here to stay and will take care of your comfort for years to come.

Why I love fall:

I just love fall.  Sweaters, jeans, apples, pumpkins, baking, football, and school starts!  Yippee!  Call me crazy, but I love two of my three children being in school.  Freedom!

But I also really love football.  I follow the Cincinnati Bengals, OSU Buckeyes, and Ohio Bobcats.  Love them!  Anyone watch the Rufus-Brutus fight this year?  We were there for that!  Crazy.

You will see us tomorrow right here in Athens!  I'm making green and white cupcakes.  Yes, homemade!  Parents weekend and all I thought our tent should have something special.  So here's to a win!

I also love my gas fireplace.  It's so warm and toasty and I sincerely believe everyone should have one.  There is no messy wood, it turns on with just a switch.  It's vented so I'm not living with fumes: they go up the chimney.  It's beautiful in my living room.  I have super old and rundown furniture so it may actually be the prettiest thing in my living room, definitely the focal point.

Really it's hard to explain to others how nice it is to snuggle up in my Bengals sweatshirt or Snuggie (yup, I've got one) and watch Sunday's games curled up in front of my fireplace.

And all of the above reasons don't even include it saves money by reducing the amount of time our furnace is on.  It's October 8th and we haven't had our furnace on once yet!  Savings!

Family Food

In addition to HVAC stuff, I'm also a busy mom and work very hard to find solutions to every day household concerns. In our quarterly newsletter, The Comfort News, we have always shared recipes and money and time saving tips. And I wanted to continue the tradition here on my blog for all our loyal readers. So I hope to pepper the furnace and air conditioning talk with practical info you can use to save time, energy, and money. Because that's what we do at David White Services: we save you energy & money! Why not keep it going in other things you do?


The internet has been an amazing resource for me and I thought I would spend some time regularly on here to share helpful hints on home organization, budgeting, and family fun.


A few months ago I found a blog on a 30 meal plan. I'm new to the blogging world and don't know how it all works but I don't want to claim this idea as my own so I'm giving a shout out to littlenannygoat who has a great blog and posted about this in May 2009. Hopefully this is sufficient credit so she knows that I'm not stealing from her (not that I have any readers anyway since I'm too chicken to tell anyone I'm blogging!)


Anyway, this seemed genius to me as I always seem to go in spurts of cooking and then getting sick of cooking and ordering pizza/junk food/eating out. I'm sure I can't be the only mom out there who just gets SOOOO tired of figuring out a weekly menu, grocery shopping, and cooking. It's not like I don't have a very full life without being a short order cook 3 times a day (plus snacks every 1-2 hours with a three year old!) And with prices the way they are right now, just one week of not knowing what I'm eating every day can make us $100.00 poorer than normal not to mention I gain 2 pounds I then have to lose! Argh!!!!


So having 30 meals that I know my family will eat; then a list which I just circle what we've used up and replace at that week's grocery shopping trips seemed quite smart.  I wrote each Meal and recipes on a big index card which I laminated and bought a holder at Dollar Tree that has a magnet on the back to stick on the fridge.  They all just go in there.  In the morning I pull out the one I'm gonna make that night and stick it on the fridge by itself.  I do any prep work then (I'm a morning person) and when I come home at night it's a no brainer as to what's for dinner.  Even better when it's a crockpot meal or a casserole I can make all the way so dinner is like 90% done before I ever even get home!


Below I have the names of the recipes which we have settled on. I chose these for their kid-friendly nature without being boring for adults, their versatility, cheap, easy to find ingredients, and ease of preparation. I'm not going to include the recipes in today's blog, just the names. But I will post them all within the month. If I'm really on top of it, I'll try to get to it within the next few weeks. And if I ever figure out how to truly blog maybe I can make the names below clickable so it would take you to the entry with the recipe! That would awesome but not currently within my skill set. Here's to the future! And as soon as I get the recipes all on here, I'll publish the grocery list.  It has like 80 items on it, but remember it's for a whole month.


The Meals:

Meal One: Meatloaf Cups, Twice Baked Potato Casserole, Steamed Broccoli

Meal Two: Spinach Calzones, Italian Salad

Meal Three: Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Hamburger Buns, Frozen Potatoes (like wedges or fries)

Meal Four: Chicken Parmesan, Steamed Asparagus, Breadsticks

Meal Five: Hamburgers, Chips, Baked Beans

Meal Six: Fajitas, Spanish Rice

Meal Seven: Pepperoni Pizza Wheels, Lite Caesar Salad

Meal Eight: Breakfast for Dinner

Meal Nine: Oriental Pork Tenderloin, Brown Rice, Chinese Veggies

Meal Ten: Black Bean Quesadillas, 1 Point Mexican Soup

Meal Eleven: Easy, Homemade Pizza

Meal Twelve: Easy Turkey Dinner

Meal Thirteen: Thai Chicken, Brown Rice, Steamed Veggie

Meal Fourteen: Chile Rellenos Casserole, Tortilla Chips

Meal Fifteen: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Steamed Broccoli, Garlic Bread

Meal Sixteen: Chicken Stroganoff, Noodles, Green Beans

Meal Seventeen: General Tso's/Terriyaki Chicken Stirfry

Meal Eighteen: Frozen Eggrolls, Hot and Sour Soup

Meal Nineteen: Tostadas

Meal Twenty: Spinach and Ricotta Shells, Garlic Bread, Salad

Meal Twenty-one: Chili, Corn Chips or Bread

Meal Twenty-two: Fried Rice, Oriental Chicken, Steamed Snap Peas

Meal Twenty-three: Salsa Chicken, Spanish Rice

Meal Twenty-Four: Easy Ravioli Bake, Texas Toast, Steamed Broccoli

Meal Twenty-Five: Philly Cheesesteak, Chips

Meal Twenty-Six: Spice Crusted Chicken Breast, Orange Salsa, Fajita Veggies

Meal Twenty-Seven: BBQ Biscuit Cups, Corn, Frozen Potatoes

Meal Twenty-Eight: Mexican Meatloaf, Baked Sweet Potatoes,

Meal Twenty-Nine: Ham and Cheese Quiche, Applesauce, Bacon

Meal Thirty: Meatball Subs, Green Beans


 

The beginning of a blog...

Welcome to my new blog and to the beginning of entertaining HVAC!  "What?"  you say.  "Can furnaces and heat pumps really be entertaining?"  Well, as anyone in the industry can tell you, you better have a good sense of humor if you're going to make a go of it.

I started my life in the industry at the tender age of three, though in retrospect I don't think my parents actually sent the crayon and construction paper invoices I made out, but just the same, I was there in person when it all began.  As my mom tirelessly did the books each week in our tiny little office above C&E on Richland Ave. and my dad learned the ins and outs of selling, fixing, and being one with the equipment.  I also have many memories of our West State St. office after we outgrew Richland Ave.  Crawling around in the basement yelling out serial numbers to my dad as we took inventory each year on New Year's Day.  I fit in small places best and there were plenty to hide in there.  And throwing pencils in the ceiling to see if they would stick in the foam (yes, 20 years later I'm admitting it was me and Steve Dean.)  And who can forget our "state-of-the-art" Commodore 64 computer?  I played Pong for hours when sales contracts weren't being typed on it.

Then, when I was old enough to actually work and not just "help," I started with filing (boring!) and moved on to many different jobs as the need came: inventory management, accounts receivable, front desk receptionist, and my personal favorite: maintenance contracts.  That's still my baby, though I've moved to other things as well.  Taking care of our customers on a regular basis, truly getting to know them, is so rewarding my heart will always be there.

Then there is the day I got my HVAC license.  I was in my 20's and one of our helper technicians was supposed to go take the test (so he could handle refrigerant and be a lead tech.)  There was a 2 hour refresher class and then you took the test.  It was already paid for and the tech ended up sick so my dad asked me if I'd like to try, since we'd already lost the money it didn't matter that I wasn't prepared and failed.  So I went.  I was the only girl in the class and the instructor didn't know what to do with me.  Mainly, he tried to avoid eye contact.  But once I got the math down (math is not my big strength), I surprised myself by knowing a lot of the answers.  And I think both my dad and I were shocked when the results came in: Esther Thomas is a Universally Certified Technician.  I guess training for something your entire life equals a couple years of technical school.

But some of my favorite stories of my HVAC life are not my own, but others & their stories.  Oh the stories our men come back with from the field!  Giant black snakes wrapped around compressors, rabbits in ductwork (I wonder why there's no air flow?), and the fun, wild goose chases we go on trying to follow customer's directions to their houses (do people not know where they live?)  And then there are the not so amusing stories: raw sewage in people's basements, finding carbon monoxide and saving family's lives, and my least favorite: creepy spiders in crawlspaces.  If it weren't for the spiders I might have been willing to be in the field more as I have a true love for duct work and especially duct tape!  Talk about a genius invention.  But all those icky spiders!

So, yes, I do believe HVAC and Hearth products can be entertaining.  It entertains me all the time, not the boring electrical chit-chat nor the deep and seemingly endless conversation about fireplace schematics but the funny stories of funny things that happen and the odd people we meet.  And the touching stories of helping people with health issues or fising heat on Christmas Eve when there is a whole house full of company.

So welcome to my blog and stay tuned for our next post:  Ask Dave!  Where we'll answer all your burning (get it?  burning?) hearth and HVAC questions.