My husband and I were able to afford property in a nicer neighborhood of Tampa, Florida, because the house had stood empty for several years.
- It required a lot of work and updates.
The previous owner had begun renovations on one of the bathrooms but never finished. The room was gutted and not functional. There was a great deal of garbage piled in the lanai, several broken windows and missing appliances. My husband and I enjoy tackling home improvement projects. We were thrilled with the opportunity to customize the home to our preferences. We started with the bathroom, adding a shower, laying down tile and installing a vanity and toilet. We painted the exterior and interior of the house, cleaned up the yard and hauled away all of the debris left behind by the previous owner. We had some concerns with the reliability of the heat pump. Although it seemed to be operating just fine, it appeared extremely old. Every time it started up, it made a very loud rattling sound. We were very surprised when the heat pump continued to provide effective heating and cooling for nearly five years. In the middle of the summer, I noticed warm air coming from the vents. When I scheduled repairs from a local Tampa HVAC contractor, the technician found a small refrigerant leak. He recharged the refrigerant, charged me a hundred dollars and told me he wasn’t sure how long the repair would last. A year later, we once again faced the same problem. At that point, I decided to invest into a brand new heat pump.