Tag Archives: home-improvement

Purchased New 8000 btu window AC

Posted in Uncategorized by

So what? What’s the big deal. I am trying desperately to remember when I bought the last one. It was at least 4 years, maybe 5. The old one still works but needs a good cleaning. I’ll put it out at the curb and someone just might be grateful I did. Somebody will take, clean it up and they have a new AC.

This is not the first time I wrote on air conditioners. I guess the last time was when I put the last one in. That cost just a little more than this one.

The question may very well be, why didn’t I buy a central unit? Well I, at one time did. However, every year I paid a minimum of a thousand dollars to repair it every year.

So, I asked my question. What costs more? Fix my AC every year for for a grand or replace a window unit for a few hundred every 4 or 5 years for 350.

Now my math skills might not be the equivalent of Einstein’s but I elected to just buy window units and let those HVAC repair guys go hungry. And guess what? No installation costs. I put the thing in the window and plugged it in all by my lonesome while my wife watched.

Again, I am not brilliant, but I suspect one day, someone will get the idea of having 2 hoses hooked up to a home and hook the other ends of the hoses to something similar to a window unit AC. That way, most of the noise is outside and there need not be a box hanging from the window.

There is another upside. After 4 or 5 years, you decide to replace the outside unit, you buy one, pull the old one and put the new one in. No need lift the old one out and the new one in. Faster, simpler, easier. Who knows? It might even be less costly.

Well maybe that is the reason it will never happen. People love selling stuff the can charge lots of money for.

Afterthought… A central unit breaks, that’s another grand for the repair. I have never had a window unit break. If it does, I replace it for about 400. I prefer the window unit math.

The Door

Posted in Crime, law enforcement, Safety by

In my book, “The Secret of the Ring, ” I write about how amazing doors are. Few ever think about them. We build walls about us to keep us safe.

Then, of course, the simplest way to get through the wall is by going through a door. I think life would be more difficult if we had walls and no doors.

And so it is that we build walls for shelter from animals, thieves and weather. However, without the doors, we might not be able to enter or exit.

I am not an expert on doors, but I know outside doors should have some basic requirements. We should be able to secure, or lock it. Depending on the neighborhood, we may want it to be strong and difficult to enter without the key. We might even want bars on it.

Oddly some folks like windows in the door. That sort of confuses me. After all, glass is easily broken. Also, it doesn’t provide much privacy.

When younger, I was told to remember to close the door. In some cases it was to keep the flies and insects out. In other cases, it was to keep the warmth in. In still other cases, we left the doors wide open to let fresh air in.

Much is said about doors and windows in literature. Certainly, most of us have heard that when God closes a door, then, somewhere He opens a window.

I suppose in a way, it implies that we can go in and out windows too. That would be particularly true when escaping fire.

However, homes are not the only thing to have doors. Barns, storage sheds, planes all have doors. So do ships but when I was in the Marines, I was encouraged to call them hatches. In many cases, such doors are designed more for keeping things in.

To be sure, life would be more difficult without doors…or gates.

One piece of advice, especially about car doors. I was trying to close the car door for my wife as she pulled it firmly closed. That hurt.

Apparently, that is one thing those engineers got right. As much pain as it caused, there was no permanent problem.

Word to the wise. Don’t get your fingers between the door and the car. It was close to half an hour before the feeling returned to my fingers.

Would you believe she had the nerve to laugh about it.

Watch out for those doors or hatches, or windows or whatever you call them.

As an aside. The warning given to Scott in my my book…”Never open a door until you know who is on the other side.”