The academicians assure us that anytime an adult is learning, it's adult education. If that's true (and it must be, since they are, after all, academicians), then I've been engaging in a large amount of it lately. Mostly via the Internet, and not on a topic I would normally choose.
Seems the heating/cooling unit in my rental house in Texas is on the fritz.
It's to be expected, I suppose. The unit is original to the house, circa 1982, and had a life expectancy of 15-18 years. So I can't complain too much. And it had the good grace to die just as I was getting a new job, so I'll be able to afford to replace it. And the replacement is totally deductible, since it's a rental house. Even better, it's only the A/C portion that died, so I cn spend a month or so getting estimates before repairing it. And my tenant is also a friend, so she's willing to wait until I get a paycheck under my belt.
So I've created a list of companies to contact, and a list of questions/criteria for them to complete and send back to me. When I've received estimates from all the companies (or on Jan 15, whichever comes first), I'll sort through them and make my decision as to who gets my money.
I"m replacing the entire system, both inside and outside parts, because of its age, and I'm going with a decent SEER rating (nothing less than 13). I'm also asking each company to provide me with 3 residential references with similar systems to what they're recommending, with at least one of the jobs having been done over a year ago, so I can get a feel for how the company does over time.
This was NOT on my list of things to spend my money on just as I begin the new job, but it was something I'd planned to look into as soon as I got a job, so I'm not going to complain too much. I just wish it weren't so much work to find a good company, ya know?
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