Things in your house that can outlive you
According to the experts, you might outlive your refrigerator, but not the cabinets in your laundry room.
Your heart should still be pumping 62 years after your heat pump dies, but you won’t live longer than your closet shelves.
Closet shelves are immortal, according to a recent study from the National Association of Home Builders.
The association study shows the average life expectancy of components in our houses.
The report is alarming.
Much of the stuff in our home is living on borrowed time.
At about 25 years old, our clothes dryer has already outlived most of its contemporaries. It moans and groans in lonely inefficiency, but still does the job more than 12 years after most of its friends have passed away.
When the average teenager is standing in line for his learner’s permit, the average central air conditioner is puffing its last bit of cool.
The life expectancy for a person in the United States has reached 78, about the same as a good tile floor.
In addition to closet shelves, the study shows that the following items will last a lifetime: bath cabinets, wooden countertops, fiberglass doors, showerheads, toilets, bamboo floors, concrete foundations and timber frame homes.
Copper wiring will last a lifetime or until some meth head steals it to sell to a recycler, whichever comes first.
More and more people are living to be 100, and so are bricks, soapstone sinks and cast iron sewer pipes.
While most people are enduring their first colonoscopy, French doors are saying their final “au revoir.”
The typical garage door opener lasts longer than a car.
Interior paint will last 15 years or until your wife gets tired of the color. No contest there.
A copper roof will last a lifetime, but it will take three lifetimes to pay for it.
Vinyl siding also will endure a lifetime, which is unfortunate.
By the way, if you see a 25-year-old wooden deck speeding through your neighborhood in a red convertible, don’t be alarmed.
It’s just having a midlife crisis.
Scott Morris is managing editor.
