Updates

Hmmm, where to begin, been a long time since I posted but we've been rather busy with purchasing and transitioning into our new home. We were stuck with the apartment lease to finish out, which was good and bad in that it gave us time to move things and it was close enough for the little woman to walk to school. On the bad side it of course was a bit costly but in the end it sort of washed out.

House wise it's finally starting to shape up, things are getting put away and we're figuring out various areas and what rooms will hold what. We did get in a garden and while it's not all that we wanted, it's much better than nothing at all. No livestock yet, need to do some work before we take that step so it will most likely be next year. Land is slowly being cleaned up, the previous owner left a lot of junk to be cleaned out.

I guess you could say the first concern when we bought the house was heating and that's what the rest of this post will be about. When we purchased the home it came with a masonry fireplace, fuel oil heater, add-on wood furnace, and baseboard heaters. The way the home is setup the fuel oil forced air heats the first story of the house while the electric baseboard is upstairs. We've since started and are in the midst of changes.

First things first, the fuel oil furnace which wasn't something I was hoping to have to say the least. My preference would have been propane since it's so versatile but that's what came with the house and seeing as how the unit is a hardly used only three year old unit I'm not complaining too much. Of course the major problem with fuel oil furnaces, besides the price, is that they just never seem to really heat a house for the cost of running one. With oil prices in constant flux and always seeming to push a little bit higher we really wanted an alternate source of heat.

The wood furnace add-on should and would have been our logical preferred source of heat but alas the previous owner proved that finances weren't the only thing he was ignorant in. Upon inspection we realized that the furnace had been exposed to very high heat, such as one gets from burning coal and it was never designed to handle that. The current furnace in place is no longer usable. We did attempt to get the furnace replaced and had settled on a Yukon Eagle Big Jack, but found out that it would involve a lot more work than just replacing the add-on thanks to new regulations. The regulations in our county were changed right about when we bought the house to where every item using a chimney requires it's own flue, previously it had been allowed for a furnace and add-on furnace to share flues. In order to install an add on furnace to our home, we would either have to run another chimney or add another flue. Not exactly something I'd want to do here.

The baseboard heaters are located upstairs and well to be honest we have yet to find a reason to run them. In fact after we walked upstairs and found the second story to be nearly unbearably hot while it was about 30F outside we shut them off and didn't run them even during a few cold snaps. That may change should we have an abnormally cold winter but for the time being they just seem quite unnecessary.

Finally that leaves us with the masonry fireplace, which did get used briefly this past Spring during some colder days/nights and well performed like a masonry fireplace which means it ate tons of wood for little heat return but was definitely better than nothing. At least though it left us with an option when we found out the issue with the wood furnace. We had already talked about putting in an insert into the fireplace, did some research and had found that the Hearthstone Homestead wood stove would work as an insert with the benefit of having a top that one could feasibly put a small pot or tea kettle on. Added bonus it seems that Hearthstone does a sale every summer on their wood stoves. Went down to the semi-local dealer yesterday with measurements of the fireplace and hearth in hand, talked it over with one of the reps and ended up purchasing a Hearthstone Heritage with matte black trim for about the same price due to a better sale on that model. Due to be installed in a couple of weeks. This should be a major improvement in our heating situation and is a heck of a relief off of our shoulders. We did end up spending a little more than planned, as the install will include getting the chimney lined but it was something I'd thought of having done anyways due to the age of the chimney so not a surprise expense and price wise our dealer seemed quite fair about it.

One lesson learned, always be open to different options, have a plan B, and be ready to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities. I had previously looked over the wood stoves months ago just to read up on them and so when we had to change plans and found out about the sale I'd already had a wealth of information on hand to let me feel comfortable enough to spend the money without having to spend too much more time waffling or researching. One of the major reasons we went with the Heritage was due to the soapstone construction which helps to retain heat and thus provide heat for a longer period of time. A very nice feature to have during long winter nights. We also had really wanted something that we could put something on top to cook with should we need it. The last thing I had wanted was to find myself without power during a winter storm and no way to warm the house or cook food. That sort of thought should be on every homeowners mind, because as recent winter storms, hurricanes, and derecho events have shown they are able to strike quickly and leave millions without power. Being able to take care of basic needs such as warmth and food should be things that people should be able to handle themselves in an emergency.