I know that I didn’t grow up with many privileges compared to my husband, but sometimes I’m still thrown off by how well-off his entire family is.
- Having been raised in poverty, it’s difficult for me to relate to the luxurious lifestyles they enjoy.
When I go to visit his parents, for instance, there is no end to the novelties I find around their beautiful, high-tech house. On our last visit I was even introduced to a new sort of heating unit unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. I am accustomed to conventional forced air furnaces like most middle class families have. I’ve only recently learned that there is such a thing as radiant heated floors, which sound like the lap of luxury to me. I can’t imagine how extravagant it must feel to get out of the shower and feel warmth beneath your wet toes on cold mornings; it sounds truly amazing to me. It was last week that I first heard of radiant heated walls, which my in-laws have recently installed in their pool room. Now they can control the indoor air temperature with heat that radiates from all four walls of the space. This results in incredibly accurate temperature control, as well as huge energy savings overall. They said that the installation and materials were actually quite affordable, and that the heated walls will pay for themselves within a few years; they only had to invest a few tens of thousands of dollars. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have free cash like that!