Maintaining the House and Body in BCN

All homeowners know about home maintenance and the eventual replacement of small and large appliances.  Well, this one struck early and the heat pump that heated and cooled the house gave up the ghost.

Before going on, let me give you some background information about heating and cooling in

Typical Heating/cooling units in Barcelona

Barcelona.  Barcelona has a mild climate, especially during the winter (they hardly ever have snow and most evenings during the winter are well above freezing).  That fact has hit home for me just recently hearing about the winter snowstorm in Washington DC and the very cold and snowy weather that Chris is enduring in Kiev.  Summers are a different story and although tempuratures rarely go higher than 28º C(or 86ºF), the humidity is so high (higher than DC) that it feels like 100ªF at times.  Living on the top level of my building, it's especially important to have good air conditioning.  Now, most homes do not have heat pumps with a central forced air heating/air conditioning system.  Some, like my friend Jordi, have no heating or air conditioning system in their homes.  Others have radiators or individual units to heat the home during the winter. During the summer, some have a wall unit that will cool one part of the house.

But what is also interesting to note is that the expectations of staying comfortable indoors for Catalans & Spaniards are different than for most Americans.  Possibly due to the relatively cheap energy in the U.S. (compared to Europe), we have been spoiled in having our heating/cooling system on most of the time, except on those spectacular days during the Spring and Fall when the weather is perfectly comfortable (California is a different story - for example, my brother lives in San Luis Obispo and does not need cooling system and rarely turns on his heat because of the ideal weather there).  The opposite is true in Barcelona.  Unless it is absolutely unbearable, most Barcelonians will not put their heat on and only when they can't sleep at night will they have their air conditioning on during the summer.  In winter they are satified with wearing triple layers of clothing inside to stay warm and during the summer they endure the heat and humidity much more so than Americans do.

Heat Pump and Ceiling Unit for our home

So, most people here do not have central air and I was fortunate to have found a home that had it installed (I believe most heat pump units are more used in businesses or if used in homes, they are for a specific part of the house, since most homes do not have a duct system throughout the home). But the prior owner did not maintain the unit as he should have and after around 15 years, it died.  The cost to replace it here is about the same as it would be to replace one in the U.S.  But to a typical Barcelonian, that seems outrageous.  Be that as it may, I decided to bite the bullet and they started the installation on Friday and will finish it on Monday.  The rest of my winter days & nights will be toasty warm and summers here with Chris will be cool and comfortable.

Building Issues (Continued)

A couple of articles ago I talked about the water issue that my neighbor below me has and the mystery about the source of that leak, which only occurs during heavy rainfall, which is rare here in Barcelona.  I also checked with my homeowner's insurance company but they do not cover problems caused by possible faulty construction in the home.  To move forward with this, I agreed to allow the contractor of the building to break through a large tile in the bathroom near the toilet and to pick away at the cement that was covering the drain pipe (burying pipes in concrete is common here).  They think they discovered the source of the problem, but it's difficult to prove.  They found a couple of cracks in the building's Y connector that takes waste water from my home to the building's drain pipe.  Hopefully they will conclude that this is a building issue and it will be fixed and paid for by the condo association.

Health of the Body

My knee is coming along nicely.  I've finished physical therapy and I'm no longer seeing my surgeon.  Now is the slow process of recovery.  I'm walking just fine and can do that for some distance, but I am still not able to run or do hiking excursions.  That will come in time.

I've depended on my Federal insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield. for my medical needs.  It's worked, but I have to pay most things up front and then get reimbursed a month later.  The only time I didn't do that was for the knee surgery but I had to constantly be on top of it, communicating to BCBS, the provider, who knows nothing about our medical insurance system and has to trust me that the process will work.  I have seen doctors here, but they tend to be for special things.  I have not had a good physical check-up since I've arrived. Then there are the copays, which are not insignificant.  It works, but it takes time and money.

So I've been thinking about possibly buying private health insurance here.  There are some plans that

have no co-pays and have a network of many physicians, clinics and hospitals.  I would keep my American insurance but only use it here for medication and for special needs.  I calculated that my premiums here would have equaled the co-pays that I spent last year.  So it seems logical to go through with this idea.  It would just a matter of choosing the best network and taking the leap.  We'll see.