I
live in a fairly large apartment. It is in an old building, which adds to the
charm of the place. The idea of trading my ample space, for something new (and
smaller) doesn’t seem too appealing right now. The main drawback of living in
an older building is there's no central air, but three units for the main rooms
of the flat.
Last
summer, I wanted to use one of these units (for the first time of the season)
and it sounded like a beat up old Pinto with no muffler, ready for that grand
scrap pile in the sky. It pumped out a lot of lukewarm air. This unit was in my
second bedroom – my home office with my computer that needs a cool room to
function properly.
Now,
I could have run out to Home Depot and buy a new unit, but time would not allow
me that day. In fact the entire weekend was booked. I decided I would wait
until the following weekend to purchase a unit. My friend who knows a lot about
electronics, promised to come with me. I put the AC unit out of my mind and
went about my business.
The
next day, I saw our building superintendent. As usual, I said hello and stopped
to chat. He told me he had been getting an apartment ready to show. The people
who lived in that apartment abandoned two air condition units and they were
sitting in the apartment. He told me I could have one of them if I needed. I
looked at the units and they looked pretty new. They were identical, so I
simply chose one of them. The friend, who was going to shop with me came by and
installed my new unit.
Several
months later, this same friend was moving into a house that had central air. He
offered to give me his unit. Not only that, he installed that unit for me as
well. Life is good!