Have the burner serviced before his pump replacement. 

Even if you are holding the cash on the sidelines while you look for a deal, you still are better having access to the cash instead of having a fat balance sheet.

I’ll put them on the back burner for now..

I'd love to see an extremely lean government without all the "fat".

Your problem is that you live in CA so you're going to get a big fat bill from the FTB each year, so it depends on your income and risk tolerance as to what makes sense for you.

In the meantime, I think the article is a bunch of hype and a concern to be on the back burner.

There are many other things to consider when doing a HELOC vs cash out refi as you will not be getting a fat check deposited into your account tax free. 

Then when showing another person the front parlor, there was another of the wild ones taking the decorative gas fireplace parts out of the fireplace, pulling away on the gas line connected to the burner. 

However, one should not draft a contract without an end buyer sitting on the back burner.

There's no fat to trim.