Our neighbors fed us some nonsense about not needing a good cooling system

When my wife and I bought a home, we moved to a place with a fairly mild climate. The only type of heating system in the house was a fireplace. There was no cooling system to speak of but our neighbors were saying how it never became overheated in the area. They said if it did become overheated, most people used ceiling fans or stationary fans to keep cool. Well, I thought the neighbors were full of it when we went through our first summer season at this location. There was actually a heatwave and it turned out that our neighbors had more than just ceiling fans! They had their cooling systems and everybody was using their A/C. The neighbors didn’t actually have a central cooling system, but they did have a couple of window A/C units. Still, I was not happy that they made me think I shouldn’t invest in a good cooling system. If I would have known we were expecting a heatwave in the warm season, I would have at least bought a couple of window A/C units. I ended up rushing to the store and getting some nice window A/C units that had built in smart thermostats. These are convenient to use because you can adjust the temperature control settings from virtually anywhere. Eventually, I want to have a central HVAC system that works with a smart thermostat. This way, no matter what the temperatures are, we can be comfortable no matter what in our home. That is the kind of life I want to live.
Air vent