I’ve never owned my own home before.
I recently graduated from college and between all my schoolwork and unpaid internships, I didn’t have enough money to buy a house right away.
Instead, I’ve been living in a one bedroom apartment for the past 2 years, trying to save enough money for a downpayment. My sister is a few years older than me though and she just purchased a home. It’s a great house in a wonderful location and the value of the house will only go up in the future. I helped move her things in and I’ve been going to her house for weekly dinners. During our last dinner, I commented on how warm it felt inside. I asked her if she could adjust the thermostat settings down a few degrees, but she insisted that it wouldn’t do anything. I assumed she was deflecting the conversation, but she continued on to tell me that she’d tried adjusting the temperature a few times and it didn’t help cool her house significantly. Even though I never owned a house before, I knew this wasn’t right. If you adjusted the thermostat, the temperature should change. My apartment wasn’t much smaller than her house and if I adjusted the temperature by a single degree I could tell a difference. I asked my sister if she was going to get her HVAC system serviced by a professional, but she hadn’t made an appointment yet. Before leaving her house that night, I gave her the phone number to a few local HVAC companies so she could have her HVAC system serviced before things got worse.