No, not THAT pool! THIS pool: the one behind Mark.
And not a moment too soon, with three straight days of 95+ degrees, it was high time we got that thing opened up. The temperature Saturday morning after we took off the cover was 60 (EEK!). By yesterday evening, it was 72. I haven't ventured out there today to see what it is - but at least now it's swimmable. And thank goodness - with no a/c in the house, it gets mighty hot, but for the most part, we keep our swimsuits handy and go jump in if we need to cool off.And while I'm on the topic of no a/c - yes, you heard me correctly. Our house was custom-built in the 50's and it's got these great, custom made Andersen windows. Casement windows. A thing of beauty. Until you try to put a window a/c unit in. Can't be done. Even the casement style a/c units won't work because our windows are actually too big. And we have hot water/oil heat so there's no ductwork in the house. And on top of that, we have solid plaster walls. So right now, we're not looking to install any kind of a/c. We do, however, have a lot of ceiling fans, and an attic fan which works rather nicely to blow out the house at night. But oh boy - yesterday, I think it was about 110 degrees in my kitchen while I was trying to make dinner.
Oh, wait! You wanted to know what Mark was doing in the above photo? Rolling up the pillows - the things you fill with water to keep the edges of the pool cover down over the winter. Why is he rolling them? Gee, I don't know, because we were getting ready to THROW THEM AWAY! I gave him all kinds of grief about this half the day on Saturday, because for heaven's sake, what a waste of time and energy. But with my newfound idea of "don't sweat it, blog about it", I decided to leave him alone and make him look silly for the whole world-wide-web to see. But that's Mark. Even trash has to be logical and orderly......
In other news, did you hear Brad and Angelina outfitted their soon-to-be-born twins' nursery with $140,000 worth of stuff? Ummm, do we need to know this? Sure, it's entertaining, but if someone can tell me the difference between a $2400 crib and a $300 crib, and what difference it's going to make to an infant, please do so. I wish they would start disseminating some useable information -- like, when a sippy cup is missing, WHERE is it? And when I find it, what's the best way to get that yucky, moldy, congealed crap out of it, and then make it drinkable again? I wonder what Brangelina would do.....
3 comments:
No A/C ?? We went down that road for several years. Out original unit crapped out, and we kept putting off replacing it knowing we'd replace it when we finally did the house addition project. Problem is....beginning the project got delayed for a few years. (Just ask my wife, she'll give you an earful.)
Anyway, with the new parts of the house being occupied, we fired up the new units last Saturday. Good news/ bad news. One worked, one didn't. The HVAC guys finally showed up today to massage the malfunctioning unit. (Note, having more than one A/C system places you -lower- on the list of priorities when it comes to emergency service, assuming one of them is working)
Given the description of your house, you might want to look at one of these should you care to pursue A/C:
http://www.minisplitproducts.com/
Link provided as an example of what's available, not an endorsement for that specific brand.
Oh Yeah. Brad and Angelina? Just say NO. Seriously, I cannot figure out the fascination with them. However, the high $$ nursery and furniture? Keep it all in perspective, as a percentage of their overall income they probably spend a fraction of what you or I do, even if we buy our stuff used !! (And I do buy used whenever possible)
Thanks for that link - did some reading and getting some ideas. Also talking to a friend's dad who thinks we can go with a unit in our attic that would vent outside and send air down to each room through a 3 inch hole in each ceiling. Not a bad idea - if nothing else would greatly increase our home value over time. Just wondering what it would do to our electric bill!
Yes an attic mounted system would work, assuming you have sufficient room to mount it. One thing that is VERY VERY important with those, make sure it has a really good condensate drain, maybe even a secondary pan under the entire unit. Quite a bit of water gets pulled out of humid summer air, condenses, then has to drain. If the drain is clogged, then it will find it's way down, usually through the ceiling somewhere. You don't want that !!
Also, make sure your attic insulation and venting is up to snuff. That will help for obvious reasons. Will at least help keep the electric meter to not spin so quickly. ;~)
Oh yeah, our house has all Anderson casement windows. The house is 21 years old. We were fortunate that Anderson still makes almost identical units currently, so matching up new windows in the additions with the old windows wasn't a problem.
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