Angus taught me everything I know

One of the many joys of new home ownership is discovering all of the little quirks and poor design decisions that were introduced when building the house.

One such annoyance is the placement of the downstairs air conditioner intake vent. It is nestled precariously over the middle of the staircase, about seven feet above the nearest step. There's no way to access it with a chair or stepladder, and it would take one of those "As Seen On TV" flexible ladders to even get in the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the previous owners of the house hadn't changed their filters in a while. A long while. I set out to accomplish this task this morning while I was waiting for a maintenance guy to show up to charge the freon.

The upstairs filter was easy enough to change, but accessing the panel above the stairs seemed relatively impossible. No matter how high or low I went up the steps, the panel was firmly out of my reach. Not one to surrender after an initial setback, I went back downstairs and surveyed the utility closet. Broom? Check. Hammer? Check. Duct tape? Hmm...

By duct taping the hammer to the end of the broom, I had an extendable tool that was strong enough to pry open the latches. Getting the filter out was no big deal. Getting it back in, however, required the additional use of a mop and a fireplace poker. I'll leave the specifics to the reader's imagination.