As of last week we are finally able to sleep through the night again.
For the past three years, during the winter, we have been forced to set an alarm for every four hours so that one of us could get up and tend the fire.
If we failed to do so the house would drop to dangerously low temperatures which was not only uncomfortable but posed a problem with freezing pipes. When we first bought the old house we thought that this was a novel idea and we were saving the planet by not burning fossil fuels. Well, that first winter we decided that we really weren’t that dedicated to the cause when we realized that the wood burning furnace in the basement required constant loading in order to keep us warm. We were not in a position to purchase a conventional furnace at the time and it took three years to save up the money to do so. We didn’t want to finance the purchase so we set aside money each month until we had enough to pay for it. We met with the HVAC dealer and went with the most eco friendly one we could afford and we were thrilled when the day of installation arrived. Modern technology even allowed ductwork to be installed with less invasive ways so the construction mess was far less than we anticipated. That first night, when we didn’t have to set an alarm, was like being on vacation. The house stays at a constant seventy two degrees and we wake up feeling refreshed now and it is great!