I had been a realtor for many years, and I thought I had seen all the oddities that could be seen when listing a house. I was wrong about the oddities, and I realized it when I headed to an older house on the other side of town. The owners called my personal number and asked if I would be interested in selling their home? I headed to their address two days later, and was amazed at the size of the house. It had six bedrooms and seven baths, along with a formal dining room. I couldn’t imagine two people living in that house alone, which is why they were selling. They told me they had a large combined family, and when all nine kids were there, they needed all the space. Now, they wanted to sell the house and buy something smaller. I did my usual walk-through and thought it was all normal until I came to the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. The walk-in closet had its own HVAC system. I stood in the middle of the closet looking at the heating units at the top of the wall. She told me she used the room as solace and her husband put a ductless HVAC inside. There must have been many times when she was seeking peace with nine children in the house. She shrugged and told me she was spoiled. I would call it pampered, having your own HVAC system, but who was I to judge? I thought the HVAC system in a walk-in closet could be a big drawing point for the house.
The walk-thru showed missing decorative air vent covers
Last year, I went house hunting. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I would not stray from my wishes. After months of searching, I was sure I had found the perfect home. It had decorative awnings that reminded me of a gingerbread house. There was wainscoting in the house that was painted a bright white, and the air vent covers were gold grates that looked like they came out of the early 1900s. I took pictures of the house before I gave a down payment to the realtor. I loved the little bungalow, and I couldn’t wait to make the house mine. I was doing the final walk-thru before going to the table to pay for the house, and something was missing. I took pictures of the house to compare to those I had taken the day I fell in love with the house. I was sitting in the car comparing them when I realized the air vent covers were missing. I showed the pictures to my realtors and pointed out the missing air vent covers. She didn’t know what to say, but I did. I was going to confront the sellers when we got into the office. I would not release money to them unless they returned the air vent covers that were in the house when I first saw it. They were part of the charm of the house. My realtor thought I was being hasty, considering it would only cost a couple of hundred dollars to replace them all, but I wanted the house I bargained to purchase, and they were part of that house..
indoor comfort business
They took the air conditioning unit when they moved.
I was renting my house while I was in college. My parents gave the house to me when my grandfather passed away, but I didn’t want to pay all the bills when I was 1000 miles away in school. I put an ad in the paper and found a couple who would rent the house while I was in school. I let them know when I would get home and said I needed the house. I finished my grad courses and was permanently moving home. I knew they weren’t happy about vacating, but I didn’t know how unhappy they really were. When they finally moved out, they took the window air conditioning unit with them. I bought the AC unit, and it was in the house when they moved in. I couldn’t believe they took the air conditioner, and I had to get it back. I was told to call the police and file a theft report. I had to inventory the house to make sure nothing else was missing. When I finally got in touch with the couple, they argued it was their air conditioning unit. The one that was in the house had died, according to them. They bought the air conditioning unit to replace the one that died. Since the air conditioning unit wasn’t on the premises, I couldn’t prove it was only a year old, or that there was one there. The police said they couldn’t do anything about the air conditioning unit, because I had no proof it was there. I learned a lesson about taking pictures of a property before someone rented it.
I thought everyone had zone control
I don’t know if I’m naïve, or spoiled, but I thought everyone had zone control in their homes.
I walked into a friend’s house last week, and I loved how wonderfully warm it was in her living room.
An hour later, I asked if I could use her bathroom. As I walked down the hallway, it seemed to get cooler. I thought they may have turned the thermostat off in that part of the house, so I used the facilities and went back into the living room. I had never been in the house, and I didn’t want to ask a lot of questions, but I was curious. I asked why it was colder at the back of the house. She told me there were no air vents back there, and unless all the doors were open and the ceiling fan on, very little heat or air conditioning made it to those rooms. I asked why zone control wasn’t working, and she didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. I told her I thought all homes had thermostats in every room, and an air vent in every room. When she said her father built the house about thirty years earlier, he hadn’t installed zone control. Everyone liked a cold bedroom, and no one complained. If it wasn’t for wanting a warmer bathroom, she wouldn’t have a space heater in there. I was totally dumbfounded, thinking she didn’t have zone control. She chuckled and told me not everyone had zone control in their homes, and I was spoiled if I thought they did.
She brought a space heater into the room. (fever and chills)
I can’t remember when I was so sick.
I was running a fever, and chills were spreading out over my body.
I knew it was warm outside, but I couldn’t get warm enough. My wife came up and fed me chicken broth and checked my temperature, but I fell asleep before she left. An hour later, I woke up and looked around. The first thing I spotted was a small space heater sitting near the bed. My wife had placed the space heater where it wouldn’t come in contact with anything, but would supply a decent amount of heat to my chilled body. When she returned, I had just awakened, and she asked how I was feeling. I don’t know if it was the medicine she had given me, or if it was the space heater, but I was feeling warmer, and I pulled her onto the bed next to me. I told her how much I appreciated everything she had done for me over the last two days, and she smiled. There is something special about having someone who loves you unconditionally. They do selfless things without asking. They take care of you when you need to be taken care of and bring space heaters when you are shivering so hard you worry your body is going to break apart. Whether it was the care, medicine, or space heater, I don’t know, but I woke up feeling 100% better the following morning. That evening, my wife was feeling unwell. I was setting up the space heater to keep her from shivering until her body broke apart.