Our Eleven-Year-Old Central AC

By the title of the post, you may very well be able to guess what this is about. Yes. Our eleven-year-old central AC. Now, you might be asking yourself, "Just how long is a central AC unit typically good for?"

Good question.

Answer? About eleven years.

Yeah, I'm sure you didn't see THAT coming. This unit is so cost-ineffective that it'll cost us about $214.00 a month just to run the damn thing.

The only reason we're even considering getting a new one installed is because of a wonderful thing called financing. Gator Air is offering no payments, no interest for one full year on a 3.5 ton Bryant system. So, I guess that means that we can worry about the cost November of 2007. Maybe by then we would've won the lottery. Who knows?

Either way, I really don't think we have much of a choice. Unless we want to ignore it and replace it once it totally breaks down. Maybe we'll be lucky enough so that it doesn't bust on us in the middle of July.

At least we didn't get any surprises from the plumber. Yet.

Six Weeks and Counting

Holy cats!

Six weeks into homeownership and where are we?

Well, our house is almost entirely gutted, almost entirely rewired, and we're looking to get the replumbing done next week. After that, the drywallers will work their magic. Which means that by the week of November 6, the floors can be refinished, and then kitchen cabinets can start getting installed, providing they're ready.

Of course, once the drywalling is done, then 2/3 of the electrical work can get finished, as well as 2/3 of the plumbing: Installing the bath fixtures, depending on when our Starck 3 fixtures for the master bath arrive. (We gave up on the Escale toilet from Kohler—the rough-in is not standard and we aren't about to relocate the toilet.) Once the kitchen cabinets are done, then the final round of electrical and plumbing can get done.

It's all happening in stages.

At this point, I can't even imagine it being finished. I think it's because we started the demo from the first time we saw the house. We never bought it for what it was, but for what it had the potential to become. Something that we're going to realize much, much sooner than either one of us ever dreamed, thanks to friends, family, and tons of elbow grease.

All in all, we made the right choice buying this house and doing the renovation. We just found out last week that the rehabbed bungalow in the corner of the next block, all 1,153 sq. ft. of it, has an asking price of $259,000, much more than what we paid for ours at nearly 2,000 sq. ft. on one and a half lots. And the new condos in downtown Sanford, just a 1.5 miles away from our house, are selling from $500,000 - $1.2 million.

We can't wait to get the house reappraised once we're done.

The additional month we'll be spending in our apartment will be well worth the extra expense. We'll have time to pack, purge, paint the house, and do the little things we haven't done for weeks. Like take a breath and enjoy the fact that we're going to have one hell of a home.

Jacqui and Craig