However, a few weeks later I was visiting them and noticed there was an HVAC technician’s truck in the driveway
My grandparents are living in the same house they have owned since the early 1960s. Although they have made upgrades and improvements throughout, much of the house looks like it is frozen in time, several generations back. They still have the same old wall paper in the kitchen that has taken on an amber hue after decades of light and sun exposure. All of the appliances in the kitchen have been replaced at least once in the years since, but the cabinets and countertops are original. This is a trend throughout the entire house, as there’s a startling mix of features that look brand new versus others that could exist in a museum. When you get to the second floor, the home’s features look increasingly older. Even the bathroom looks like it is frozen in time. One thing that they’ve been doing for years is keeping the ceiling air vents upstairs closed whenever they’re downstairs. The only two vents that get opened at night include the vent in the master bathroom and the vent in the master bedroom. I told them that this puts unnecessary strain on their air conditioner, but they politely told me that they’ve been doing this for years to no ill effects. However, a few weeks later I was visiting them and noticed there was an HVAC technician’s truck in the driveway. Two workers were installing a new central air conditioner in my grandparents house. I casually asked one of them what happened, and he told me their a/c was fried from leaving so many vents throughout shut all of the time. It added so much extra strain to the ventilation that it fried the air conditioner altogether.