Last week since I diverged to the car accident clean up I did not finish the story of our bedroom air conditioner replacement from the week before.
We purchased the air conditioner from a local appliance store that has been around “forever”. We have purchased air conditioners from them before, as well as other appliances. I do not really like them as I think they overcharge and they don't seem to understand how our state sales tax applies to air conditioners. If we were not in the corona virus situation, I would suggested to husband that we should shop around before buying, but since we are that in situation – I said nothing as we needed to resolve the matter quickly.
In our state sales tax does not apply to things which are are “capital improvements” to one's house. For those who might not understand this, a capital improvement becomes a permanent part of one house – a window (new or replaced) is a capital improvement, a window shade or curtain is not. If one buys an air conditioner and sticks it in their window opening it is not a capital improvement as one can easily remove it from the window and the house would not damaged from doing so. The exact same air conditioner if it is installed through a hole in the wall, as our is, – a permanent installation – is a capital improvement. In both cases it does not matter if it is a new unit (and new hole in the wall for the permanent install) or a replacement unit (even if through an existing hole in the wall). If one only replaced part of the air conditioner it would be a repair not a capital improvement whether the air conditioner was in a window or through the wall.
So basically- we should not have paid sales tax on the new air conditioner, but we were charged sales tax. This has happened in the past when we have replaced air conditioners (all through the wall) from this store and is one of the reasons I don't like this store. I have argued in the past to no avail and did not want to get excited and make a fuss this particular time, so after one questioning of the salesman, I went did not make a fuss. (His story was that there is sales tax except on the first air conditioner installed – I did double check at the state tax website that there should not have sales tax on the air conditioner, and I downloaded the form from the state tax website to apply for a refund of the sales tax we paid.
I will say that I am giving the store (employees) the benefit of the doubt that they are not trying to rip off customers and they actually think that they should charge the sales tax and are sending it to the state when they send in the sales taxes they have collected. I hate to think (though I do) that they are knowingly charging sales tax which they should not and either keeping the sales tax collected themselves or are charging the sales tax and sending it to the state as it is too much trouble for them to bother to deal with sales that should not have sales tax charged.
Now our house is rather, ahem, “casual” – as in my dresser has all manner of bric a brac and other items on it. In addition our rooms are small. The day before the air conditioner was to be installed I cleared off the dresser (left the clock , my eyeglasses holder and my day of the week pill box). I packed it into a large plastic box (husband was nice enough to remove scarves he wove that were stored in the box so I could have it. I wrapped the items – most being breakable – in two of my worn tee shirts and some spare underwear and socks to keep them from breaking. In the hallway at the top of the stairs – an area of limited space – I have my teddy figurine village and I was concerned that since the area is small one of the installers might bump into the village – so its “residents” were stored in the same box as the items from my dresser and the “buildings” were moved to the table in our living room that husband uses when weaving (at his suggestion).
That night we took clothes for the next day out of our closets and then moved our night stands to in front of the closets and pushed my dresser along its wall towards the closets to give the installers the most room possible by where the air conditioner would be placed. In doing so my lack of vacuuming the room was obvious, so we had to vacuum. We also pushed our bed to husband's side of the bedroom as far as we could – against his dresser and a bookcase – he had to get into and out of bed at the foot of the bed – had to vacuum under the bed also. Prepared for coming adventure we went to sleep.
Now, in addition to fear of catching Covid-19, I am still terrified of having bed bugs again. It was an exhausting and expensive process (1/3 of our income for the year) to get rid of them 11 years ago, and we have been very careful and worked hard to avoid having them again. Service people who walk in and out of people's houses can easily pick up bed bugs at one house and bring them to their later stops and this was not just someone coming in the house - they were coming in our bedroom! So the next morning we covered our bed with 2 plastic tarps that we normally use on the bed in our RV when it made it up (in this case to keep the bed clean and so anyone looking in would not see a bed in the van).
When the installers came husband opened the front door. (We had rearranged our vehicles on the driveway the day before to allow them the most access to the house we could.) The main installer walked in – he did have mask – sitting below his nose – but no gloves. Husband made a comment about the mask and it was put into proper place, but when asked about gloves – he said they don't use gloves. (If me and another time I would refused the air conditioner – but we were stuck.) Husband dealt with showing him where it was to go, etc. I stayed downstairs as I felt myself getting upset with virus and bed bug fears. The assistant installer was outside unpacking the new air conditioner on the driveway – his mask was around his neck as he breathed and sweated all over the air conditioner. When the main installer went out to him he said something and the assistant's mask was put on properly. I am under the impression that if nothing had been said – the masks would not be on or at least not properly on.
I stayed mostly towards the back of our living room breathing deeply in an attempt to keep from being upset over people in the house. It worked – more or less.
When they were done and left husband sprayed Lysol on the air conditioner, wherever they had been working or put their equipment down, the covers on the bed, etc. We moved the furniture back into place. It took me well into the next day – as I put the pieces back on my dresser before I stopped feeling in a panic. The teddy figurine village took another day before it was put back together.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When something is unpleasant (such as having people in our house – in general and especially right now) one has to go ahead and get whatever it is done and over with.
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