>>It was like that when I lived in Chicago. It was an older house without AC (other than two window units). It didn't even have the ductwork to put AC in. So we basically sweated through the heat waves. If we were lucky the downstairs window AC would keep the temperature under 80. That was downstairs -- upstairs, where the bedrooms are, was much hotter. Now I live in a relatively new house with central air and like that a lot. I don't overdo it, setting the cooling thermostat to 76, but that makes a big difference.
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>I'd never lived with central air until we moved into this house. Our first house, like my parents', had hot water heat, so central air wasn't an option.
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Oh, this house was even worse than that. It had hot water heat and radiators that were designed for steam heat. On the cold winter days it sounded like a brass band, one that was badly out of tune.