Stephanie
Yonkers Gothic
 It's been kind of a biblical couple of days-- the rain and the heat has been completely intense-- and naturally we are wishing that we had allocated that air conditioning money to the central air we are capable of, but can't really afford. I know I need to call HVAC guys to get this all started, get more quotes,etc, etc, but I'm so burnt out on hiring people and then having to follow through with them and get a quote and worry if it's too high, and if they'll show up when they say they will, and do the job when they say they will, and wondering if I could have got it cheaper/better/faster. I know, I know, it's silly to worry about such things. But I do. And it's not making me any cooler. We are not completely without A/C-- my mom gave us a portable air conditioner, but it doesn't seem to cool anything but immediately in front of it-- and I fear the 5000 ConEd bill it will certainly cause. And we have A/C in our bedroom, and ceiling fans in the bedroom and office. But it remains prodigiously hot, and there's nothing I can do about it, but open my wallet or suffer the sweaty consequences. I keep hoping that we can get away without biting the bullet on the central air this year-- but I don't know if we can.... At least we haven't lost power here (which is more than I can say for 25,000 people in Queens, and 10,000 people in Westchester. It's not just the heat that's been oppressive and impressive-- it's also the rain. It has been raining, thundering, and lightning prodigiously over the last couple of days. Today, it sounded as if the thunder was right outside our door. And the lightning storms have been beautiful. Our house itself hasn't been too wet-- though there's a bit of moisture in the basement (we've got two dehumidifiers running down there full time, and it definitely seems to be helping) It's also been raining Amazon packages-- 5 packages came yesterday, and today another one. Well, time for a bit of sleep, followed by a long amount of sweating and complaining about the heat. Thank God I've got that pitchfork! |
posted by DADAPALOOZA at 12:03 AM
Comments on "Yonkers Gothic"
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LisaBe said ... (8:10 AM) :
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DADAPALOOZA said ... (9:01 AM) :
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Anonymous said ... (3:39 AM) :
post a commentwe were having a conversation about central air the second before i read your post on houseblogs. it's hella hot here in pittsburgh, too. we're just beginning our remodel and we do plan on doing central air; our conundrum is when--before we do the jacking and foundation work and insulation and moisture/mold fixing? concurrently, because they'll maybe have to open up walls to deal with the former? or after, because it's just too much for one pair of homeowners to deal with at once? i totally get what you're saying about just the prospect of talking to all these contractors feeling like too much to stand sometimes. it can be paralyzing!
Thanks for writing lisa!
Well, I guess it all depends on how long your project is going to wait, how much money you have, and what you need to spend it on, and how desperately you feel you need the air conditioning. We already have the central ducts-- and when we re-installed them (to put zone heating in) we didn't install central air. At the time, we thought it would just be until the summer, when we would install it. But we ran into problems and complications (surprise, surprise, surprise) and right now, anyway, I'm wishing that we'd spent that money on central air instead of on carpentry delays. But what can you do about it?
I guess my suggestion is to have it done while the walls are relatively open (that's actually when we had our ducts installed, anyway) After that, central a/c is simply a matter of buying the A/C unit, installing it so that it can be controlled by your duct system, and wrapping the downstairs ducts so that they don't drip water all over the place. (I say "simply", but as you probably know-- it's not simple at all! :o) )
Anyhow-- best of luck! Do you guys have a house blog?
The only issue I have with central air personally I want radiating heat or flowing cold. In winter its nice to sit infront of the fire because you can monitor your own temperture with your position from the heat source. The same with a split system air con unit in summer. We bought an LG Artcool split system and its been the 2nd best investment of our lives (dishwasher being the first).
Anyway - i know thats not the issue under discussion - but yeah.
Luckily enough our air con was installed a day before we experienced the most oppressive day in our time at our house. Super timing it was!