Summer Plans 2012

Hey, take a walk with me to the side of my house and check out what is new and exciting in this rich Georgia clay:

(nobody had better steal these new babies for its copper!)

These are two brand spankin new AC condenser units!  A couple of months ago we began having AC/Heating companies come on over to give us an estimate on new AC and furnace units.  And we learned a lot such as how the prior owners "robbed" the air from the main floor to the in-law suite in the basement level.  We also learned how the furnace--the original one from 29 years ago (!) had about 5 things wrong with it not up to code.

But this was in February and we ignored the reality of needing to get this done and then in April we had a week of coolish weather and we also were too stressed to talk about how we were going to pay for this.  Then it got warm outside again and the old systems must have "heard us talking" and the AC unit for the upstairs went kaput.  After all these years.  So glad that Hubs insisted when he did to research firms--at least we knew who to call.

When we bought our house over 6 years ago there was a home warranty which we purchased for another year or two, hoping these old units would die but they never did.  We kept them cranking all summer hoping they'd quit on us.

When the AC company guys came over for estimates they said we won the award for having the oldest units they had ever seen:

They just kept chugging along and working hard until like I said one of them stopped working at age 29 one week ago.  No one is upstairs much at all except to sleep so we made some use of the basement the past few days.

And even though the thought of the cost and bills were so overwhelming about this the past few months, I have to admit, that it was a great day yesterday when the super nice, polite team of four was at our house all day.  And thank goodness for good credit and a same as cash 36 month plan!

It all made me in a great mood last night.  I was so thankful to have a good job.  For which I don''t have to commute and use much gasoline.  I don't have to hardly get dressed ! (I think we are having a garage sale and I am selling all of my clothes and shoes--I wear nothing in there).  And although being old now means no one looks at me anymore (did I mention I have no need for make-up or nice hair), I'm telling you it really felt good to be able to outfit my house with something necessary (and have good credit).  I know Hubs finds it exciting too.  He is not the type to text me anything much during the day and certainly not get mushy, and today he texts me, "How does the new air feel?"

And I am so happy to not have to see bills from the power company that are about $550 in July and $580 in August (and $400 in the months either side of that)!

Hubs asked the crew if they'd leave the old systems behind and he had Youngest help him take a lot of the metal apart -- I have no idea how he got them to fit into this little pick-up.  The two oldest boys helped lift them in:

Can you believe that sight!!??  Jed Clampett!!  I was all, "Hubs! How are you going to drive that!!"  But he came home from work today and drove it he did to a place only a few miles away that takes scrap metal.  And amazingly to me he came home with about $250 for the weight of the scrap metal and the copper.  In fact they told him if he had pried apart even a few more pieces smaller there'd be more copper inside but instead when he heard that from the worker, Hubs asked if someone else maybe would want to and the worker pointed out another customer and said he was a nice guy--so Hubs gave this large piece to him. I was impressed over the cash-ola for the scraps.  I was expecting he'd get $50 not $250.  Summer project for this teacher?  (he said, "Umm no").

I don't know what has become of me here all excited about an improvement to the house that I had dreaded previously and blogging about scrap metal junk yards.  But I wanted to show you how we are $Spending our summer vacation!

Since we are not going on any Summer Road Trips this year, I think instead I will feature a weekly blog theme of former Family Road Trips from our new and improved air conditioned home!