New HVAC

Okay, are you already snoozing or have you decided to just move along and do something else today rather than read a blog post about HVAC?

Well, let me give you my rationale here.  This is a blog about enjoying life, right?  Well, if our 21-year-old AC units go down on the Fourth of July, life won’t really be too enjoyable.

Each year we get a tune up and service our units and we’ve been doing just fine.  Maybe one outage and simple repair over the years.  But.  We really feel like we’ve been on borrowed time.

So we bit the bullet and did our LAST home improvement.  And I mean it.  You have taken the journey with me on a roof replacement, bathroom remodels, new windows and now this.  Cha Ching. 

I want to start spending money on fun stuff.

For my local friends, a big shout out to Proskill.  We have used them for many of our plumbing projects and they came through with their usual great customer service on this job too.  It was supposed to be a two-day job, but they sent a big team, worked ten hours and got it done in one day.

The new units are about four feet tall.  Huge.  And those young guys handled them with no problem.  Here’s a pic of hub checking it out and you can see by comparison how big they are.  Impressive.  And much of that stuff had to be hefted into our attic.

About two hours after everything was unboxed, a big truck and trailer came by and picked up all the trash.  They really have a good process.

The heating unit and the controls are all in the attic.  Our attic access is in our pantry.  What, you ask???  Yep, but they did a really good job taping off that all.  They did a semi good job cleaning up after themselves, but I was glad I didn’t do all my spring cleaning before they came. 

Of course, it was the coldest day of the month and the whole house was open and they tested the AC.  Brrr.  The cats were traumatized and I was locked in my bedroom with a heating blanket on me.

Miserable.  But over.

Unless we start a new career flipping houses, we won’t need to ever install HVAC again.  Or a roof.  Or windows.

What I’m Reading

Camino Winds by John Grisham is a follow up to Camino Island – which I liked.  I do not believe Grisham wrote this book.  It’s not a horrible book, but it’s not him.  It lacks his fast pacing, his do-goody characters and a grand finale with a twist.

Similar to how I feel about Dean Koontz, I think these older authors have ghost writers and need to either hang up their name or do a bit better supervision.

Need to escape to a Florida Island for an afternoon read? And then have your afternoon getaway interrupted by a hurricane?  Step right up.  Got something better to do, go do it and skip reading this book.

I might have recently told you that I checked out Station Eleven by Emily Mandel and whoops, already read that one.  But.  I did like it so I checked out a newer one, The Glass Hotel.  This book is super different and written creatively.  That makes it a bit difficult to follow and it took me a while to get into it.  Enough said, because I don’t want to give it away.  But stick with it because the end is worth it!

It’s not a bit like Station Eleven, but if you liked that one, I’m betting you’ll like this one.

What I’m Eating

Zucchini is a SIBO-approved diet vegetable and I’ve really upped my intake the past year.  I like zucchini pretty much any way it’s cooked, but I thought I would try in on the “air fry” setting on our countertop oven. 

This technique worked really well.  I didn’t need to watch it or turn it.  It was perfectly done to add to my rice dish.

This is what I did.

Simple Air Fried Zucchini

• One zucchini, sliced diagonally
• Olive oil spray
• Salt, pepper and thyme to taste

Spray and season zucchini.  Place on foil covered tray in oven on “Air Fry” mode, “Vegetable” setting.

That’s it.  Pretty darned simple, right?  I added it to rice and shredded cheddar.  Oh, and a sharp eye might catch that bag of chips in the background.  Some crumbled chips on rice and zucchini.  Yes, please.

I promise to share a more fun purchase with you on the next post.  But this installation was a pretty big deal in our house and I like sharing the journey.  Have a wonderful weekend.  XO