Is Paradise Supposed to be SO HOT?!?!

This past week has been somewhat miserable in the McMillan household. Myla tried the tackle the stairs, but instead got a nice bump on her head; Cade has become a little impatient and demanding, adding "NOW" after every request (example: Go outside...NOW. Want apple juice...NOW); Kevin has to watch movies with the regular TV sound because our surround sound went out; and I have a pretty severe sunburn on my back (I even applied sunblock!!). But worst of all, our beloved air conditioner has been sick and the temperature in the house reached upwards of 92 degrees (I chose to wake up the kids from their nap and leave at that point and seek coolness elsewhere, so who knows how hot it really got!) The air that was coming out of it was cold, but it was just trickling out. We could barely feel it. My dear, industrious, intelligent husband wanted to fix it himself. We have been duped by A/C repair companies before. So Kevin collected knowledge from his friends and the internet and decided that it was dirty and needed to be cleaned. He got a coil cleaner from Home Depot and went to town. Here are some pics to show how difficult it was. The indoor part of the A/C unit is above the stairs leading to our room. He first had to take apart the indoor unit, which was a challenge in itself.

Here is Kev applying the cleaner. The fumes were really strong.
Here is Kevin rinsing the cleaner off. He used a little sprayer at first, but then we ended dragging up the garden hose. He created quite a little contraption to collect the water to try to preserve our carpet.
Look at all the ickiness that came out of the A/C. My job was to make sure the water got into the bucket.

So after 3 very late nights and many hours working on it, Kevin put it back together and turned it on this morning and it was blowing a lot better than before, but the air wasn't cold!! Ahhhh! We were so disappointed! So Kevin called a friend and his friend called a friend and they came to look at it. It turns out that our unit had no freon in it. We just had the unit serviced two months ago and the man said he topped the freon off, so it was supposed to be full. Anyway, they added the freon and the air turned immediately cold. Sweet, wonderful, blessed cold air. How grateful we are for our aged little A/C unit. It's about 20 years old and still kickin'! Thank you to Rob and Allen for helping us out!

Tonight life is back to paradise. Myla's bump is gone (but not her adventurous spirit) , my back is almost healed, Cade is...well, we are working on that, and Kevin is just happy to be watching a movie rather than propped precariously on a ladder trying to fix an A/C unit. Now we can enjoy our 3-day weekend! We hope you enjoy yours!