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It isn’t easy coming up with Christmas gifts for my husband.

• The man literally wants nothing.

He owns or buys everything he wants. I do have one idea, but it is so expensive. My husband built himself a backyard shed. He poured cement footings, created the wood frame, added plywood flooring, cement board, drywall, electric and plumbing. He really has made himself a nice space. He finally has closed everything off and the space is airtight with a door and window. The only downside is that he doesn’t have heating or AC. It isn’t comfortable working on projects without proper HVAC. More importantly, his tools are starting to rust due to the moisture of the southern heat. He really needs to have air conditioning to keep things dry and cool. I have lookedinot options for him and a ductless HVAC unit seems to be the best fit. I know there are window heating and cooling units but they are ugly and not too powerful. I want my husband to have the best. A ductless heating and AC device is really better. However, the installation requires drilling a hole, feeding wiring and tubes to an outdoor unit. I really don’t want to do that installation. Hiring a HVAC contractor on top of buying the actual system is going to be a hefty cost. I know I won’t be getting him anything else for Christmas. I am wondering if this gift will be a happy surprise or will I spend a whole bunch of money for him to be indifferent?
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I am going to install the individual thermostats.

Anytime my husband leaves on a business trip I go insane. I go nuts cleaning the house and doing a project. I also throw things away that he otherwise would have told me no on. I love completely gutting his room, washing it all down and then putting it back together organized. I can wash the sheets, scrub the floors and work until midnight without a problem. I usually tackle something huge while he is gone. Last year I painted the entire outside of the house. This year I think I am getting a new HVAC. For years we have had a central heating and air system. Our HVAC unit makes a noise when it operates and isn’t very effective. I want to have zone control too. It would be convenient and save money. I have been saving for years to get a ductless HVAC unit. My husband doesn’t feel it is necessary and doesn’t want to install the unit. So the moment he leaves, my HVAC technician comes into the home. I am going to help the HVAC guy with the installation. He is going to handle the mini splits and outdoor air compressor. I am going to install the individual thermostats. After everything is done, I will have a free hallway closet since no HVAC is in there. I also will have zone control and a brand new heating and cooling system. I just need to get it done before my husband returns. I also want to clean up any debris that gets left behind.

hvac serviceman

The house across the street is nuts about curb appeal.

• I have tried to keep up but I can’t compete with that level.

I got my house painted and changed the surround from orange and brown to grey and white. I also removed tons of bushes, trees and raked my perimeter. I even planted some flower beds and stained the wood front porch. I feel I look pretty neat and tidy. The house across the street is so much better. They did everything I did and more. They have a lawn service come in once a week to maintain their grass and gardens. They have elaborate flower beds, hanging pots and seasonal decorations placed by professionals. They also invested in a gorgeous white gate that surrounds the property. They even sprung for a cement driveway while I am stuck with sand. They even went one step further and put a little white gate around their outdoor HVAC component. That small detail does make a difference. Now everything looks neat, organized and tidy. I have contemplated getting my own surround for my HVAC equipment. What has stopped me is cost and functionality. Wouldn’t it be harder for the HVAC technician to perform repairs? I also think in the grand scheme of things, hiding the HVAC doesn’t seem like a necessary expense. We have heating and ac. What does it matter if the road sees it? I am still a bit jealous of their little gate though. I am jealous of their whole front yard. I bet the backyard is even better.

click for more on heating

I never thought I would be one of those people that needs the newest tech and gadgets. When I heard about a smart thermostat, I didn’t plan on buying one. I started doing updates to my hallway though. I began by removing the icky brown carpet and laying grey tile down. I sanded the half wood wall and took down the wallpaper. Half my wall is white and the other is light grey. I removed the popcorn ceiling and sand it smooth. Then I started adding new touches. Recessed lighting, silver switch plates, new knobs on the door handles, my hallway looked beautiful. The last thing was the hallway thermostat. It was a beige box with a plastic toggle. It stuck out in my modern hallway. It looked terrible and didn’t function well. I kept bumping the toggle with my shoulder as I walked down the hallway. It wasn’t all that uncommon for the heater to all the sudden turn on. I then would realize I bumped the switch to the 90 degree setting. I got the smart thermostat because there were no buttons, toggle or knobs to hit. It was sleek, silver and smooth so it matched my hallway. Now that I own one, I do love all the features it has. I liked getting it from my phone and getting alerts on air filter changes. I like when I walk by it lights up and tells me the outdoor temperature. It was such a good purchase. Everyone comments on how sleek and classy it looks in my hallway.

heating system

When my husband and I bought our first home we were warned about the HVAC equipment.

The heat pump was 17 years old, made a high pitched whistle outside when operating and apparently didn’t keep the house cool. My husband got the HVAC cleaned, changed the air filter and ductwork inspected. The heat pump now works totally fine. We have quality AC in the summer and good heating in the winter. The outdoor unit making a whistle noise when operating is super annoying. The fact that the heat pump takes up 90% of the hallway closet is also aggravating. I really don’t want a heat pump system either. I kind of would like to have ductless HVAC in the house. I want to have zone control. My husband and I don’t share a bedroom since we like vastly different temperatures. He uses his overhead fan and blasts the AC. I bundle under blankets and turn on a space heater in my room. Ductless HVAC would allow us to be the right temperature without affecting the other. I also have a second bathroom, laundry room and office that never gets used. Right now we are wasting energy providing HVAC for those spaces. Zone control would cut down on the monthly energy bills by a lot. We are waiting for the heat pump to die first. I can’t justify a new HVAC system while I have one that works perfectly. Well, the heat pump isn’t perfect. I guess I can’t buy new HVAC while I have a unit that will turn on and off.

furnace/heater tune-up

When I first moved into my house we had a giant boiler system in the basement.

The living room had a ton of metal grates in the floor that the heated air would rise and then warm the living room.

It looked hideous but was very effective. I told my husband the first thing I wanted to do was remove the boiler. He encouraged me to leave the boiler in the basement because it was out of sight. He said to focus on making my living room pretty. I covered up all the metal grates but one and the living became freezing cold. I then began looking into alternate methods of heating. I realized that I could use my boiler system for heated flooring. I was able to hook up piping to the existing boiler and have it stretched through my living room floors. I then put tile on top of the piping to hide the ugliest. Now I have beautiful tile floors that are heated by hot water. Since it is water and not air, the heat doesn’t rise. It makes no noise when operating and anything that touches the heated floors feels warm as a result. The couch, loveseat and ottoman all feel like heated seats. Isn’t that amazing? My boiler system has lived in the basement for years and shows no signs of stopping too. It is a beast, a tank of a heating system and I am so thankful I didn’t rip it out all those years ago. I never would have gotten hydronic heating in my home.

More about heating

My hubby is not known for moving hastily! Anytime she tackles a project I guess it is going to be well done, however takes forever, and both of us had one outdoor shed that I wanted to use as a gym! My hubby needed her own space and chose to build one rather than buy, the building process took forever, and for weeks she was staring at a dirt patch and visualizing… She then poured granite pillars, created the wood frame, plywood floor and then got everything hooked together.

She still to this day isn’t airtight.

Since the roof angles into a lean to, there are gaps from the walls to the roof at a slant… I told our hubby over and over again that she needed to close off that portion of her shed. I thought the moisture would get into the shed and ruin her tools. Instead, bees got into the space and built nests. I don’t guess if they are wasps, yellow sweaters or honeybees, however they are mean. There are immense nests all underneath the roof. I don’t blame the bees for building there. They are protected from the elements and it is a genuinely slender space and perfect for them. The bees are everywhere and it is hard for our hubby to go in and out of the shed now. It is the bee sanctuary. I looked into bee exterminators and I don’t truly love that idea. I don’t want to kill the bees just because they found homes. I did locate a honey bee rescue and relocation supplier. They truly will put the bees on a honeybee farm. However, I still don’t guess if that is the genre of bee they are.

Removal

My fiance is in the rental game business, then she consistently is buying homes plus up-to-date apartments to spruce up.

She then gets the location upgraded, cleaned plus puts it up for rent… Affordable housing plus affordable apartments go adore hot cakes in our area, then it is not a problem getting a up-to-date occupant in the space that she provides; The next step is that our fiance wants to get into temporary housing situations.

I do a lot of home renovations plus upgrades. I consistently am getting rid of appliances plus furniture, however my fiance has the program of doing short term housing solutions. That way people who need to come to the part for a medical procedure, military stay or an extended work trip, can use the temporary housing without an issue. All the furniture plus appliances would come in handy. My fiance thinks she can charge a lot more since it has everything the lady could want, since short term rentals are almost adore an airbnb, the people should be cleaner, neater plus do less damage. Additionally, if you know about the style of lady who is only going to be around for a short time, they correctly are a little better off financially. My fiance thinks she can have her short term rentals suddenly pay back for themselves. She already has a huge beach house building that would serve perfectly. It is right in town plus near all the local businesses. She is laboring on getting enough supplies to make it a viable solution for people looking for furnished apartments for rent.
serviced apartments

I have severely sensitive skin; I need to be careful that the soaps and laundry detergent I use have no fragrances or serious chemicals.

I am prone to rashes.

If I shave too often, I end up with red bumps. I have tried waxing my legs and bikini section however it’s painful and my skin takes a while to reclaim. I can’t use Nair or hair removal creams, because it causes an allergic reaction. I visited a high end salon and spoke with an aesthetician. I wanted to shape my eyebrows however was distraught about the effects on my skin, he proposed sugaring. I had never heard of this alternative hair removal process, the sugar paste is created from sugar, lemon juice and water. It’s totally organic and even edible, however one large difference between sugaring and waxing is the direction the concoction is applied. The paste is applied with the fingertips and it’s flicked off, taking the hair out in the direction of the growth and from the root. There’s no breakage. The paste is warmed up close to body temperature and doesn’t stick to the skin, then a benefit of sugaring over waxing is that it comes off easily… With shaving, the hair is strengthened and made thicker. Shaving frequently makes the hair more hard to grab. The repetitive sugaring process causes the hair to grow thinner and makes the session less painful; Discovering sugaring has been such an improvement to my beauty regimen. I am so satisfied with how the aesthetician at the salon handles every aspect of the process.

sugaring shop

Everyone in my family has a talent of some kind; For my mom, she is the cook of the family.

She can take only a few ingredients & come up with anything that would taste amazing.

My brother is a kindle genius & I still don’t guess how he knows what he knows but he is entirely relaxing at what he does & he recently got a job as a kindle programmer. My sibling is the artist of the family & she can make paintings that are simply appealing, & my dad is a Heating, Ventilation & A/C professional. It may come as a surprise but out of all of the talents in my family the one that I find the most admirable is my dad. He has been in the Heating, Ventilation & A/C industry for 2 decades & he is relaxing when it comes to all things heating & cooling. He was not able to become an Heating, Ventilation & A/C professional overnight however & he had to go to university to get his Heating, Ventilation & A/C certification in order to become the heating & air conditioning worker that he is today. He tells me stories about how strenuous he worked in middle school to get relaxing grades so he could go to a relaxing university & go for his heating & air conditioning goals. His strenuous toil paid off too, because now he is entirely successful & has been promoted multiple times in his dealer. He has even taken me out with him while I was in his heating & air conditioning service runs, & while I am not sure if the path of an Heating, Ventilation & A/C professional is the one for me, I have a lot of admiration for the toil he does. I have seen it firsthand & it isn’t easy.

air purification