For the first 5 years of our marriage, my hubby and I rented an undoubtedly nice apartment; all of us enjoyed every amenity, but the building was equipped with a sizable swimming pool, tepid tub, barbecue area, fitness center and game room, and within the home we had state-of-the-art appliances, including stainless steel refrigerator, stove, microwave, washer and dryer.
All of us had two full powder rooms with double sinks, a balcony with a view of the swimming pool and granite counter tops.
The heating and cooling setup was lovely, quiet and energy efficient. There were smart thermostats installed in each room to cater to preferences, however from an app on our cellphones, we could honestly make swings to temperature from anywhere at any time. When we started looking to buy a house, we wanted all of these same comfortable luxuries. All of us planned to purchase a home with a swimming pool, zoned heating and cooling and the most up-to-date appliances, but unluckily, houses of that caliber weren’t in our price range. In order to get the amount of land and square footage we wanted, we needed to downgrade our expectations quite a bit. All of us ended up buying a fixer-upper with an outdated gas furnace, no air conditioning and no swimming pool, my hubby and I have made a list of home improvement projects. Most of them are quite costly, so it’s going to take us years to honestly complete them all. At the top of the list is air conditioning with a smart thermostat. We’re hoping that if we spend a bit extra on a high-efficiency cooling system, it will keep annual costs to a minimum and make the investment a lot more affordable.