a swamp cooler for mother's day?

The temperatures last week were unseasonably high. I hooked up the evaporative cooler before the week began. It was about 16 years old. Last season I thought would be the last when I shut it down. It wasn't drawing much cool air, and the motor seemed to have a hiccup when it changed speeds. No telling when it might just stop. The spider tubes that distribute the water to the pads from the pump were clogged with calcification, and snaking them didn't help a whole lot. I had been surreptitiously pricing new units and parts everytime I went to a do-it-yourself center and doing a bit of internet research.

The wheel was so rusted, it crumbled in pieces. I couldn't get what was left of the old wheel off to replace it. I even thought of taking the axle off, but it was also rusted. I thought, this is ridiculous. I will end up replacing everything in a matter of weeks or even days.

Two days of heat were more than enough for Cyndi and the boys. Temperatures were rising inside the house. I had a neighbor look at it first thing Friday morning, and he wasn't interested in helping. Get professionals, he said. The problem is, the cooler hangs on the side of the outside wall off the second floor and above anyone's arm reach. The rusting braces needed replacing, too. And the space to work in is narrow, rocky and uneven. And what if new duct work was necessary to connect the unit? And who to call? Everyone and their dog were probably calling HVAC companies this week and trying to schedule work.

I called my brother-in-law, Pete, first. Maybe he knew a contractor who knew a contractor. We talked a bit on the phone on my way to work Friday. Oh, we can do it, Pete said. I'm not so sure, I said, but I liked the possibility of getting it done over the weekend and not waiting on someone else's schedule. I called Don, my other brother-in-law in town, and he too thought we could do it. He was busy most of the day Saturday but could come over about 5.

Saturday morning I took some measurements. Pete brought his truck over at 8 am. Cyndi left to take the boys to Jack's baseball game that morning. Pete and I drove to Lowe's. Everyone and their dog were in the air conditioner aisle. There weren't any units the size I needed on the floor. I went up to a sales guy and said, I know you're busy, but I need such-and-such an air conditioner. He wrote it up then and there and brought one out from the back on a lift to Pete's truck in the front, easy as pie. He told me this unit had just come in on the truck the previous night. It came complete, except for the motor. The hardest part was buying the angle iron for the braces and the miscellaneous hardware we figured we needed. All in all, a good experience from the sales staff that morning. Total cost about $600.

How to get the old one down? We had a few rickety ladders. We thought about building a scaffold. More and more, we thought a little controlled shove and gravity would do the trick. I didn't like the idea, and so we discussed this for a long, long time. There was the neighbor's wall to consider, a window next to the air conditioner, and the old rusting bracing, but what I mostly didn't like about the idea was it wouldn't give us a clue about getting the new one up. After considering all the options and angles, the old air conditioner came down in one thud.

Next the new bracing. That took a while and a bit of grinding to cut the pieces to the right lengths. We had opened the carton for the new air conditioner and I took measurements. Thankfully, the duct opening itself was the same (that much I knew when I bought it), but the opening was higher from the bottom of the unit. I didn't want to remove the old brace anchored into the side of the brick wall, but if we lowered that brace exactly two inches, the duct opening should align. Moving that brace took a while, too, and another trip for hardware. I fretted about that more than anything. If we got it just right, there'd be no need for any new ductwork. It it were off by more than 1/8"...well, I didn't want to think about that.

There were a few other things going on that day, too. Pete finally had to go to catch the end of Brendan's baseball game, but he didn't want to leave before we finished the bracing. We weren't completely convinced it would hold, even figuring the weight was evenly distributed. While he was gone, I tightened the bracing up and tested one end with my weight. Wet, the unit would weigh over 250 lbs. I wired the motor and connected a few other things.

Then about the time Don came over, I started the charcoal grill and threw on the tri-tips I had been marinating. Jackson was home with me, rollerblading, and Cyndi and Rylee had made a quick trip to Belen, but by this time they were back home. The plan was to have dinner ready for everyone before it was dark. We invited Elley and Dorie and all the kids over for a celebratory dinner. I cut up the tri-tips when they were done so anyone who was hungry could eat when they wanted, but instead everyone waited until the project was done. Cyndi made mashed sweet potatoes and salad, and some chicken nuggets for the kids, and kept everything warm in the oven while she and her sisters drank Chardonnay in the backyard.

Pete, Don and I opened some cold beer to help us get the new unit up. That sounds worse than it was. It was much more a symbolic ritual. Pete and Don drilled a new hole for the wiring; the only knock-out was on the wrong end for the wiring that came out of the side of the house. We carried the new unit to the side of the house without the side panels or the motor. It was remarkably light. We debated a while, arranged and re-arranged the ladders, and with minimal effort, and no catastrophe, the unit was up on the braces. We were astonished how easy it was. And miracle of miracles, the sleeve from the unit perfectly matched the house duct. The unit slid right in. I put the motor in and the belt on. The pulley and wheel aligned perfectly, at least by eyeball. Pete fastened the motor down and tightened the belt, while Don did all the wiring and got the water running. Pete and Don fastened some sheet metal screws, while I ran back and forth to the water spigot, passing by Ellie and Dorie in the backyard with Cyndi and thanking them for everything their husbands had done. During most of this time in the evening, the kids were in the front yard playing baseball, complete with all the gear that Rylee routinely has out in the living room.

There was a brief ceremony to turn the airconditioner on. We opened another bottle of wine and brought out the food. Don had wine. Pete and I had a Scotch and a beer. The dinner was good. The kids watched "Hotel for Dogs." The house cooled down.

Pete and Don said they enjoyed it. It was a good project, they said, and, frankly, they were surprised it was completed by Saturday evening. Pete and I had done some installation pricing. We figured the base price for installation would have been about $500 or more, but that was for installation on the ground and didn't include materials and labor for new bracing or getting the new unit up or the old unit down. It wouldn't include new ductwork, either, but we avoided that anyway.

With all that I hadn't found a time to get ready for Mother's Day. On Sunday, there was little time in the morning before an early Mass and reservations for brunch. The boys had made beautiful Mother's Day cards at school. Cyndi had gotten a mother's ring for her mother, with birthstones for each of her mother's children. Ursula had lost a mother's ring during the remodeling going on in Belen. With the remodeling and the new caretakers coming in and out, someone had taken it. It wasn't the only thing she lost.

I called Mom and Dad's room at the Hale Koa in Hawaii, but they were out and I left a little greeting from us to Nana. I got a picture from them. They went to a Mother's Day brunch there with Beth--they were probably there when I called--and had some other wonderful meals with Beth the night before.

We had our own room at the brunch at the Marriott. Grandma was there, Michael was there, Marti and Jeff, Pete and Dorie, Don and Elley, and all the cousins, who took several trips up and down the elevator in the open atrium. Afterwards, Cyndi went to a dance performance of Jordyn's. We had seen the performance a few weeks ago, so Cyndi went with her mother and others who had not seen it. That gave Jackson, Rylee and I a chance to shop. We drove all the way out to another Costco, 'cause I knew it had one of those digital picture frames in stock and we can always use more milk or bread. Then we went to Anthropologie, one of Cyndi's favorite places. Jackson wanted to get her a nice dress, or blouse, or scarf. So he picked a blouse out. We got a card, too, and the boys signed it. The boys gave her the card and the presents. Jackson slipped in a $5 bill, too. He had insisted on it. I loaded some pictures on the frame. Cyndi tried on the blouse and it fit perfectly. Cyndi said it was her best Mother's Day ever.