I have managed to keep everything in my house running like it was when my parents willed it to me in the late 1990s.
I didn’t do any remodelling and only replaced their old 1970s era refrigerator. Despite requests to do otherwise, I left up the ancient wallpaper and neglected to do any indoor painting. I ripped out all of the old carpets and replaced them with high quality laminate flooring. After that, I was pretty much done with the interior of the house. Sure, I planted flowers and trees over the years in the yard and slowly sculpted the landscaping, but the inside of the house stayed essentially the same with no huge changes. After getting new furniture a few years back, I had made no real improvements or upgrades to the old house. My best friend works in the office of a local heating and cooling contractor. He tells me all of the time that I should consider replacing the old air conditioner in my house. It has been there since before my parents died and hasn’t shown any issues since. I told him that I have a technician out here on maintenance calls every three months to make sure it’s working without issues or malfunctions. Surely anyone would take a brand new HVAC system if money was not a concern, but I can’t afford the $6k it would cost for a house the size of this one. Until the central air conditioner breaks while in constant use, I don’t think I can justify spending the money to replace it. I will keep running this machine until the very last day that it can handle.