Shouldn't The Shutters Last More Than Two Weeks? OK, What About The Roof?
3/16/2007FRIDAY
2 PM
Sorry to be so slow posting. At the moment, my sinuses are like over-ripe cantaloupe and well, I ll spare you more vivid imagery. Let s just say I haven t been feeling tip-top the last day or so.
SFX nose: Honk.
So, OK, my sinuses may be shot, but my furnace is working just fine. As well it should it s only two or three years old.
Then again, this furnace replaced one that we d had installed not all that long ago, either. And yes, we had it serviced regularly.
When the repair guy came to pronounce the penultimate furnace dead, his boss followed up with a sales call.
Ohhh yeah, he told us, looking at the dead furnace in the basement, that model was supposed to be state-of-the-art, but we found out real quick there were big problems.
Although he never came out and said so, we were left with the distinct impression that it was our fault we fell for the whole "state-of-the-art" furnace pitch.
And then, of course, he turned right around and tried to sell us the latest, most state-of-the-art (and expensive) model he carried.
We ll think about it, we told him.
The minute Furnace Boss Man left the house, we got to work doing Internet research. In the end, we did not wind up with the ultra-expensive furnace. And so far, so good.
A study last month from the National Home Builders Association informs us that we should expect a life span for this latest furnace of somewhere between 15 and 20 years. Considering our less-than-ideal experience with the earlier model, all I ll say is: We d better!
If you re a home owner, the association s study makes all sorts of moderately interesting predictions about product longevity, including the expected life span of wood shutters, various types of roofing systems, appliances, and even molding and millwork.
One piece of news that will surely be as big a relief to you as it was to me: Tennis courts can last a lifetime, as long as they're properly re-coated.
And here I'd been so worried...