I hate staying at my in-laws’ house.
I have a myriad of reasons for this.
Although I tried my best to get along with my wife’s family when I met them, both her siblings and her parents never reciprocated with equal respect. Regardless, I never gave up being civil and polite to them whenever we all have to interact. But, when you’re staying in their home for a weekend or longer, the personal differences can blossom from slight annoyances into full on seething rage. I end up sleeping horribly and no doubt each time I am in a bad mood for a week or longer by the time we get back from the trip. Lately, there has been a different reason for why I hate staying at my in-laws’ house. My wife’s parents have the same central HVAC system they installed in 1986. Either by sheer luck or because they chose the right brand, the air conditioner and furnace have both survived relatively unscathed in the years since. On the face of it, it’s not hard to understand why someone wouldn’t replace it. But, in reality, the air handler is so loud you can hear it from every room in the house whenever the system is cycling. This adds to my existing sleeping issues when my wife and I stay at her parents’ place. Aside from the noise it creates, it doesn’t seem to cool the air as well as our air conditioner in our home does, nor is it as good at drying the air out either. Staying at their house always makes me appreciate my own air conditioner for all of the ways in which I regularly take it for granted. I guess some air conditioners are just louder than others.