I Get Some Help Prepping for Central Air

Before Picture

When you are getting ready to add central air conditioning to an old home, you will need to prepare an area outside the house for the new condenser to sit. The area needs to be level and have enough room around it for air flow. Also - even more importantly - that area needs to be out of the line of sight. After-all - you don't want to ruin the old rustic charm with a modern piece of innovative ingenuity. For our house that area would be along our driveway. However, that area was not level to the ground. The area needed pachysandra removed, a rock wall taken apart, the dirt shoveled and carted away and then the rock wall rebuilt.

So who do I call when I need help with manual labor? My Little Helper, Lily, of course! Once again Lily made a less-than-fun-back-breaking-chore a complete joy. There were times that I just had to stop - take a step back and watched her work...and take some pictures of course!.

Lily removing the pachysandra. After she loaded it in the trash I wheeled the container to another area and placed in my yard waste containers.

 

Lily was not only there to look cute...

...this girl knows how to work hard!

Just in case you thought I was kidding - look at this girl go! ***so proud***

Turns out our whellbarrow can talk. It kept saying "feed me." So Lily would add more dirt. Then when I went to empty it, it would say, "blahhhhh" as if it was throwing up the dirt. Trust me it was cuter than it sounds...and we laughed and giggled a lot.

After 90 minutes Lily and I had the area cleared and flat.

Luke was jealous of all the pictures I was taking of Lily so he came outside to ham it up...

A message from Lily - she wants you to know that even though he is in the pictures...

...he did not help (lol).

Daddy and My Little Helper

Just to prove I am not a mean, horrible boss that just gives orders and watches the laborers do all the work...I like to lead by example.

After Picture - Condenser Pad and rock wall rebuilt (thanks for lending a hand Pop-Pop)

After we leveled the area, we had to rebuild the rock wall and place down the Condenser Pad making sure it was level in all directions. Another thing to keep in mind is to look at the Specs for your condenser and make sure there is enough space between the back of the condenser and your foundation for proper airflow. You cannot place the condenser right up against your house, otherwise your system will starve for air and you will burn it out.

Now I just need to actually install the condenser!