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| Tuesday, July 18, 2006 |
| The A/C and Me |
OK...I wrote yesterday about buying a new A/C unit for the upstairs as the one I had couldn't handle this heat. Well I got the energy to try and rearrange things last night. What I thought was going to be a 10 minute job turned into an hour and a half cluster f**k! Jeeze!
Here's what happened. The one we had in the hallway was about 5,200 BTU. That fine for normal everyday heat, but this 100 degree stuff was killing it. So I bought and 8,000 BTU yesterday. I was going to take the old one, put it our bedroom window and then put the new one in the hallway. I knew I could lift and move around the old one but I was a little worried about trying to install the new one. The window is 25 ft above our driveway. If I had dropped it, it would not have survived. I wanted to get things a little arranged for my husband as a surprise so I decided to move the A/C into the bedroom and then later we could install the new one in the hallway. That way the bedroom would be nice and cool for sleeping. (Just so you don't think I'm trying to bake the kids, they are at camp this week)
Well, I get the screen out of the window and clean up the window some. Then I get the A/C from the hallway (it dumps water all over me) and go to stick it in the window...it's too big. Try again...maybe I'm putting it in at an angle...nope still too big. Maybe if I wedge it in at an angle...nope. Maybe is I slide it in from the side...nope still too big. Maybe if I take a HAMMER AND POUND THE LIVING S**T OUT OF THE WINDOW FRAME THE F****ER WILL FIT!!!!
(sigh)
No, I didn't go get the hammer but I thought about it real hard. So, now I had a decision to make. I could put the A/C back where I got it from and admit defeat and be overheated while I slept last night or I could figure something else out. Of course because I thought this would be quick I started this at 10pm.
Well, I don't like admitting defeat...Especially to household appliances so I decided to take my chances with putting the new one in the window.
I went and got it out of the car and put it together in the kitchen, in front of another A/C unit. A little over and hour later it's all put together (the damn box didn't say anything about some assembly required) I start lugging it upstairs. I have the stairs from hell in my house. Maybe I'll post a picture of them sometime. The are narrow and steep. I finally feel my way up those with this 100lb piece of machinery. I get it in the window and manage to close the sash without dropping it on the driveway. Yippee for me!!
So I try and turn it on, and it scared me at first, it didn't start...then I realized I had to push a ground fault thing...and low an behold it worked!!
By this time it's almost 11:30pm. I am hot and sweaty, tired and cranky, my back is starting to hurt from lugging all this crap around...but I had cool air again!
Lessons learned...measure the windows first before carrying around large pieces of equipment...and keep a hammer handy for those impulsive moments when you want to give something a whack! |
posted by Raven @ 4:24 PM  |
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| 7 Comments: |
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i remember someone (Brian??) having a little philosophy: "if it don't fit, get a hammer. If that don't work, get a BIGGER hammer. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway."
I feel yer pain: both in hot upstairs environments and those damned stairs that nearly killed me early in the AM when I crashed @ yer pad some... what? 3 years ago?
Mom bought one of those AC units for her spare bedroom that were flush with the window-- that is, almost 80% of the thing HUNG OUT THE BACK OF THE WINDOW instead of the 1/2 & 1/2 units that can comfortable SIT on the sill for a second. THAT fucker weighed 10,000 lbs and every time I went to install it I had visions of the damage it would do: it'd rip hell outta the sill, fall THROUGH the thin aluminum porch roof, smash into a hundred pieces and probably break the picnic table. Never happened in REALITY, happened each and every year in my imagination.
BTW, since you cannot SURVIVE the summer down here WITHOUT AC, Sam's Club now has PORTABLE AC units: you stick a lil' hose out the window and just wheel the unit from room to room.
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I vagually remember someone saying that...it might have been Brian. I saw those portable ones, but they are more expensive that the ones that just sit in the window.
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Oh, boy, have I been there before! It's always so logical in hindsight what should have been done. I'm glad you were successful. Lord knows in this heat, you really need A/C, especially in the bedroom.
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Things just don't good for ya sometimes, do they Rav? Dang.
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It's all my own fault...I need to quit being so impulsive at times. Try measuring things first...oh well! It all worked out in the end.
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Yet another inherited trait from your birth mother! I just gave up easier & in my youger days had temper tantrums! You'll be glad to know I've given up tantrums. Believe me, an person over 40 having one IS NOT a pretty sight.
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I am glad that I Am to old to pick up those 10,000lb things and tote them up a flight of stairs from Hell only to find out you have to drag it back down unassemble it repack it and return it because you were to cheap to buy a tape measure first.Been there done that never again Measure twice cut once is the code to live by.
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i remember someone (Brian??) having a little philosophy: "if it don't fit, get a hammer. If that don't work, get a BIGGER hammer. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway."
I feel yer pain: both in hot upstairs environments and those damned stairs that nearly killed me early in the AM when I crashed @ yer pad some... what? 3 years ago?
Mom bought one of those AC units for her spare bedroom that were flush with the window-- that is, almost 80% of the thing HUNG OUT THE BACK OF THE WINDOW instead of the 1/2 & 1/2 units that can comfortable SIT on the sill for a second. THAT fucker weighed 10,000 lbs and every time I went to install it I had visions of the damage it would do: it'd rip hell outta the sill, fall THROUGH the thin aluminum porch roof, smash into a hundred pieces and probably break the picnic table. Never happened in REALITY, happened each and every year in my imagination.
BTW, since you cannot SURVIVE the summer down here WITHOUT AC, Sam's Club now has PORTABLE AC units: you stick a lil' hose out the window and just wheel the unit from room to room.