Camping Out In Comfort- Able Air 1

It started as an annual family tradition – once every fall, we would head south from the DC Metro area towards the woods of the Shenandoah National Park.  My dad was a big outdoorsman and was always eager for his three sons to adopt his love for Mother Nature.  We would often camp out, our mom being the best sport of all as she put up with “the boys” and handled all the food preparations and cooking for the weekend.  It was a chance to hike, fish, and just enjoy the beauty of our surroundings.  Quite honestly, I would always have preferred a trip to the Virgin Islands, where I argued there was plenty of natural environment to enjoy from the warm, sunny beaches.  But that wasn’t our Dad; a guy who put hunting and fishing as his top two hobbies and strongly believed everyone should experience the simpler things in life by roughing it in the wilderness.  It really came as no surprise, then, when I came home from summer camp one year to the news that my parents had just bought a cabin in the heart of the Shenandoah region.

“This is great!” I remember running up to discuss with my mom.  I know, now we’re committed to going all the time – but look at the upside, I thought.  No more sleeping outside!  A real roof over our heads, private rooms, indoor plumbing and heating… it felt like a huge upgrade, and I’m glad our dad was finally starting to compromise.

A few weeks later, we made our first trip to the new home.  I tried my best to be the good son and look excited, but inside I kept thinking, “THIS is a cabin!?”  Sure, it had four walls, a roof and floor.  But there really wasn’t much more than that.  “Where’s the bathroom?” I asked my dad.  He pointed to an out-house and said to use that.  My mom was already orienting herself in the kitchen – sure, there was a gas stove and small fridge, but certainly no indoor plumbing.  Anywhere.  And as day turned into night I discovered one other thing – we didn’t have heating, either.  “This is not going to work,” I kept thinking, and I immediately started sifting through old yellow pages to find heating and plumbing solutions.  I discovered AbleAir-1 Inc. — an affordable, family-owned company based in northern Virginia who I knew could handle this.  I pointed it out to my mom, who said we’d all get used to the place if we give it some time.  Really?  I’m pretty sure fall turns to winter, so it’s only going to get colder if we “give it some time.”  But I stayed patient.

Sure enough, trip after trip, the weather worsened.  My dad wanted to go more often since we now had the cabin to live in, but it quickly grew more unreasonable to be roughing it in a place without any indoor heating or plumbing.  We were barreling through firewood (and smoking up the rooms with our clogged chimney) and using blanket after blanket to keep warm.  As winter set in, I think my dad knew he was losing support, so he went out to buy space heaters and hoped those would satisfy the increasingly disgruntled family.  But it still wasn’t the same.  Sure, better than being outside, in a tent and dealing with the raw elements… but there’s no reason to live like this!  There are easy solutions to handle the most basic amenities.

Finally, after an especially rough winter weekend away, we returned to DC and sat down for dinner.  Everyone seemed irritated and in a bad mood, but my mom broke the silence by saying, “you know, we have to do something… if we want to keep using that cabin year-round, it really needs a HVAC system.”  I was floored by my dad’s reaction.  I guess he knew it was a losing battle, so he let out a sigh and responded, “Well, if we can find an affordable answer, I suppose we can look into it.”

I went right to the computer and pulled up the information on AbleAir-1 that I had found.  I showed it to my dad, who proceeded to spend the rest of the night studying up and researching options.  A month later, as we drove up to our wintry cabin, a truck was already in the driveway.  On the side was plastered “AbleAir-1, Inc.” and I remember the smiling response from my younger brother – “Oh my god, yes – heat!”

I still can’t say I love the whole family camping adventures.  I tolerate the hiking and fishing, but of course would still prefer the beaches.  That said, I’m starting to love our new place.  It’s a home.  It’s comfortable.  It’s livable…  It’s heated.

* For more information about installing or repairing HVAC systems, visit www.ableair1.com*

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 1:03 am and is filed under Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.