Just a second public service announcement to anyone who might still be riding this roller coaster thread ;) :

At the time my Mother was married to her second husband, a man who extremely frugal (read:cheapskate), and cut corners on EVERYTHING. He serviced my furnace himself even though he had zero background in the area of home heating work. Thanks to his incompetant tinkering, the furnace burned improperly. The moral of the story is that there are certain things you shouldn't do yourself, no matter how bright you think you might be. Home furnace repair is one of those things.