New homeowner unearths a silly HVAC mod inherited from the previous inhabitant after investigating the frozen tundra of the upstairs guest room: ‘That used to be their bird room. They kept like 8 parrots in there’

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  • Woman with cold hands in the wintery chill.
  • I found out why my upstairs bedroom was freezing... and the solution made me laugh
  • My upstairs guest room has always been weirdly cold. Like 10-12 degrees colder than the rest of the house. I thought it was the insulation, or maybe the vent was blocked, or maybe ghosts (preferred explanation).
  • Spare upstairs bedroom with a window and a view.
  • I finally crawled into the attic over that room to take a look.
  • There is insulation. Walls look fine. But the duct leading to that room? It was connected... but the flap inside had been screwed shut with a tiny wood screw.
  • Someone deliberately set the vent to "permanently off." Why? Why sabotage one room?
  • Later that night my neighbor (who knew the old owners) explained it: "That used to be their bird room. They kept like eight parrots in there. The heat made them noisy so they kept the vent closed."
  • Three parrots sitting on a branch in the jungle.
  • The parrots won. I inherited the consequence. Removed the screw, heat works perfectly, and now the room no longer feels like northern Canada.
  • Upbeat-Armadill... Never underestimate the dumb stuff your previous owners may have done
  • YoureARebelNow Previous owner needed to leave you an owners manual.
  • Many_Application31... As a parrot owner, this totally makes sense. Often, you bring in special heaters, air purifiers, and humidifiers to keep a room at a comfortable temperature and humidity.
  • If they had a heater to keep the room at 80 degrees, they couldn't get any more heat into that room. If I had to guess, they had a heater in that room for their birds.
  • home_improvement... This is amazing. Of all the possible causes, insulation, ducts, ghosts, and parrots were not on the bingo card.
  • Gotta respect the commitment though: "screw the vent shut for the birds" is next-level problem solving. Glad the fix was simple, and the room's finally livable again. Old houses always come with the weirdest inherited decisions.
  • Poutiest_Penguin I use one of our spare bedrooms as a home office. It's above the garage, and it's drastically colder than the rest of the house. I have to keep the door to the office closed
  • to keep the cats out, and this morning I went in and it was 52°. I bought a full height cat gate to put in the doorway, because I clearly need to keep it open for heat circulation. My tropical plants are going to freeze.
  • I don't know how the previous homeowners ever used it as a bedroom. It's uninhabitable. It's colder than my basement.
  • PuzzleheadedLeade... My brother and his girlfriend were always freezing in their apartment. Turns out the windows were open. In the main living area. And had been since they moved in. No idea how they didn't get wet when it rained ...

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