Everyday is a new struggle with my aging condominium. Back when this building was erected in the early 1980s, it looked like a gem along the coastline and stood out among the other housing complexes in the area. The photos from the time period paint a thoroughly idyllic image of a condominium complex that is now in total disrepair. Trees are left to grow for years at a time with no trimming, leaving branches and leaves scattered around, both on top of and underneath cars. The grass grows up to my knees before it’s mowed and nothing is ever swept, be it dirt, yard debris, or dead insects and insect droppings. Once you step inside many of the units, the problems just intensify. Two major hurdles presented themselves about ten or fifteen years ago, following a few decades of seemingly no ill fate. The first was the plumbing—we found out that the pipes were done incorrectly from the start and that there was not proper venting to handle the load from a full building of occupants at a single time. The whole sewer system was given new venting to fix the problem. But, just as bad was the terrible ductwork design throughout. The ventilation is too narrow and the tiny air handlers in the condos are not sized for the ductwork installed. Either you pay around four thousand dollars to refit custom metal ductwork, or you deal with one end of the condo always being cold with the other always hot. Putting in a larger air conditioner, even if it could fit inside, wouldn’t solve the problem either because the ductwork then becomes too narrow to handle the extra load from the AC.