We own an older home and while there are things I love about it there are also things I hate. Almost everything I hate about it ties directly into its age which is slightly over 60. The things we love outweigh the bad though so I don’t see us going anywhere anytime soon.
On days, like yesterday, when the humidity is climbing and the temperature is blazing hot though that the negatives rear their ugly little heads. Namely no central air, by far it is our biggest complaint. Not only do we not have central air but we also have no possibility of adding it. We have radiant heat, which means a boiler, radiators and no ducting.
No ducting means no a/c and boy could we use it some days. Instead we have a window unit in the back and a monster of unit in the living room. They work well for the most part but they aren’t a perfect solution.
First of all they are loud and tend to give me a headache the other problem being that in order to keep the entire house at a reasonable temperature the two rooms which contain the a/c unit’s end up freezing cold.
Every year it is a war, our house tends to retain heat, which is great for the winter months, terrible for the summer. If we falter and let it begin to heat up we can’t get it cool again. It’s as simple as turning off the units to get a break from the incessant noise for a short time, having someone forget to close the inside door, open a window when it’s cool but humid out. Any of these and we’re faced with a week of catch up to just get close to comfortable again.
I love where we live, not only our neighborhood and community but our actual street, the forest, the big yards and the proximity to anything you could possibly be seeking. So in the end the things I hate aren’t as great as the things I love but what I wouldn’t give for central air. This old house and I do not get along at 30 above (mid 80’s for the Fahrenheit inclined) or higher.
