New Air Conditioner: Keeping Up with the Joneses

My neighbor put in a new air conditioner. It's about 8 feet away from mine. When I was out in my yard in the heat, I heard a slight sound and noticed that new air conditioner. It was so quiet. I was envious immediately. My 1995 air conditioner sounds like a jet. When I have it on, I have to turn the TV up to SCREAM level. I'm certain my neighbors hate me (for many reasons, this is just one).

I was so envious that I invited myself in their house to look at the unit. I don't even know their name. (I know, I'm rotten. The worst part, I still don't know their name. But I do know the make and model of the air conditioner.) They told me that they ordered it from Amazon and installed it themselves. Hmm...

I can order from Amazon, I thought. But I can I install a 100 pound unit? I thought that might be a bit much for me. So I order it from eBay and call out somebody to estimate the installation. $300. What? The unit only cost $479 and it comes with everything you need to install it but caulk.

Well, that was enough motivation for me to try to install it myself. I cut out all the old caulk and pulled and pulled and pulled. Man, that old unit just fit in that sleeve. Here it is out with a nice hole in my wall. Luckily the sleeve was still in great shape.

I pushed the new unit over to the window, installed some foam spaces and then pushed and pushed and pushed. Man, the new unit just fit in that sleeve. TIGHT on the sides. 

I added more foam than the old one had and caulked like a champ. It was easy to caulk inside the house, hard to get to the bottom on the outside of the house. I had to lay completely flat and I got covered in dirt and eaten by mosquitos. I even replaced the outlet. Nothing peeves me more than painted outlets and this one had 20 years of paint on it (including mine).

I still have to get some help getting the old one out of my house. There's no way that I could lift it by myself. Luckily, I have a big, strong friend with a truck. 

That was yesterday. Today, I can barely move. Wow, at my age that much work it's a lot of strain on your body. It bugs me that as I get older, my recovery time is much longer. But apparently it doesn't stop me from doing this stuff!

And there you have it. I just had to keep with Joneses (whatever their name may really be). You'd think being a Jones would make it a non-issue. You'd be wrong.