New AC

Our heating and air duct work in our home was 32 years old. It had to be the cheapest money could buy at the time. Having lived in this house for 18 years I know of the cheap building standards of the original contractor in 1974.

So after years of uneven heat and air, dusty table tops after dusting two days earlier, and a reoccurrence of asthma this past December, we decided to get the duct work replaced. While we were at it we had the 18 year old heat pump replaced.

Our contractor Van, is a nice middle aged Jr. Samples type with the overalls and chaw. He and his slightly smaller son with a third boney skinny guy named Randall show up in a beat up pick up yesterday and began tearing out all of the old duct work.

I know you may be wondering where we got this clown. After all our local TV and Radio is cluttered with heating and air ads. This guy is not spending a dime on advertising I can assure you.

Van came well referred by several trusted friends and neighbors. I know that the neighbor A.J. knows his mama and they go to the same church as his own parents go to. This goes a long way in rural settings. And our car mechanic Mark knows him and trusts him even though the Mark has a window air conditioner hanging out the back of his home.

So by the end of the day big ol’ Van emerges from the crawl space under the house (it looked like the house was giving birth to him) with his red clay belly and his face was all sweaty.

Van yelled to the boney guy under the house, “Fire it up!” and the AC was running.

His son (who has a real industrial staple in his ear) showed me the new off-brand compressor that now replaced the familiar old “Carrier” compressor. He explained that these unfamiliar compressors were used in Florida and other coastal areas and they were resistant to salt and rust. He further explained that a dog could could hike his leg and pee on this compressor for 200 days straight before it would begin to rust. I explained that my dogs were girls and they squatted on the ground directly. Even so this was an impressive demonstration.

Gigi and I had become accustomed to cold and hot spaces in the house and bad air. In the summer the air was cool but wet feeling. It was cold in the bedroom and stuffy in the living room.

This morning we woke to a dry and evenly cool house.

Amazing what a little money and a couple of nice bubbas can do for a house.

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