Today some guys came over and installed central air in my house. This is so great, I can feel each room of the house cool down. My window air conditioner in the living room didn't have that kind of effect throughout the house. The outside unit is smaller than I thought it'd be which is nice, but it's noisy. This is supposed to be a quiet model. I'm glad my deck is at the side of the house so I don't have to hear the AC in the backyard. I was also concerned about installing it at the other side of my house because my neighbor's deck is right there. When I'm laying in bed I can hear the machine outside humming.. but I'm sure in time I'll get used to the sound and zone it out.

The worst sound in this house is my one and only cold air return just outside my bedroom. Whenever the fan kicks in it's trying to suck too much air through a small space and makes a loud sound that you can hear from every room upstairs. If you keep the grill screwed on then it vibrates and makes a very loud ringing sound. It drives me nuts so I leave it partially unscrewed.

The guys had a look at it and the whole set up and knew right away which local guy did the install. They showed me all the poorly done stuff and what needs to be done to solve the problems. They are going to put a new cold air return in my basement games room, move one I installed in a closet to a more appropriate place, and enlarge the cold air return in my upstairs hallway by installing a 4 inch wide by however many inches long floor vent right beside it. The hole will be larger and it won't humm and wistle anymore. I'm concerned about how ugly it will be but anything is better than what I've lived with for the last 2 years.

I'm quite pleased with the progress of this house. My dad and a few other people thought this wasn't a good place to buy but $10,000 later I'm almost finished all the "little" things that needed to be done. I've got $4000 - $5000 more planned for 2006 then no more work on the house. It'll be done.