I had the opportunity to travel overseas for a few months.
I figured I would take advantage of it while I was still single and didn’t have any real obligations here at home.
The only issue I had was finding someone to check in on my house while it was empty all that time. I put an ad online for a person to take care of things but most of the people who answered seemed a bit sketchy. In the end I just hired a neighbor kid to mow the lawn and hoped for the best. I shut down the HVAC system because no one would be there and it was summer so there was no threat to the pipes. I headed off on my adventure feeling pretty good about it. I had the time of my life but must admit it was good to be home. I arrived and immediately turned the AC on because the house was really warm. Within just a few moments my house filled with an odor that was awful. It smelled like something had died in my air ducts. I shut the system off as fast as I could and immediately called my HVAC dealer to come check it out what was going on. They sent out a technician and apparently a family of mice had set up their home while the system while it was not running. They had ruined part of the insulation too. The repairs didn’t take that long and they sent in a separate crew to clean the ductwork. They told me that I should have left it on while I was gone to avoid the problem but I didn’t know that. Lesson learned!