When my wife first broached the subject of her parents retiring near us, she did so in a very smart way. Not only had we had an amazing day together, she’d arranged for the kids to spend the night with friends. We had a lovely bottle of wine, cooked together and just talked out on the deck and out of the air conditioning. It was great. When she brought up the idea of the in-laws living right around the corner, I think she thought I was going to freak out maybe. But this conversation wasn’t exactly a surprise. I knew that her folks were sick of a Winter where they have to use a gas furnace for heating. Dealing with the snow, ice, sub zero temperature and just the sheer length of that Winter was beating them down. When they came for Christmas, they always wanted to stay for weeks. So I knew that this was something that my wife was struggling with. My relationship with her parents is cordial but I was not their choice for sure. That leaves me in a tough spot much of the time. But it’s one thing being inside the central air conditioning of my home for weeks at a time and living here. We talked that night and I actually did more listening than talking. My wife had found a place that they could afford. All we had to do was replace the HVAC equipment. I have a buddy who is an HVAC professional so that was no problem. In fact, when the in-laws did buy the house, the HVAC company did us such a solid with bargain basement pricing on the residential HVAC.