We live in an old home. Old by California standards that is. Built in 1939, with some additions and changes done mostly in the ’50s to it’s core infrastructure, it has the original ‘gravity’ furnace for the main living areas still. That makes it sound like we live in a large home, but we don’t. The two smaller bedrooms and bathroom are on one side of the living room, the dining room, kitchen and garage were built on the other side. In the ’50s, the garage was carved up to be another bathroom, bedroom and what I now call a Miata closet. There’s also an additional laundry room added on to the back of the house.

Having a furnace for only half of the house actually is fine. Well it’s fine when it works. Currently, it’s not working. It hasn’t worked in over a year and we’ve now assumed it’s completely dead. No one wants to repair such an old beast wrapped in asbestos and in a difficult to reach, small, Hobbit sized death chamber under the house. Yes, I tried to fix it, too, but after 65+ years, it’s no longer really something I think we can rescue. Read More…