New Furnace

 After almost 20 years of keeping many different people warm and gallons and gallons of water hot , the old furnace had had it.  It wheezed along the last few months, with fatal symptoms. Sometimes the heat in the house was not wanted , and yet the burner kept burning until we called the repairman to shut it off.  For the last several months, hot water was a phantom commodity-sometimes there, sometimes not. We knew it was just a matter of time, so we decided to change it for a newer one before Old Man Winter sent a chilly blast our way.
The furnace men showed up with a brand new version a week or so ago. They spent two days taking the old boiler out (after cutting away a door and part of the wall), and connecting the shiny, brand new one to the existing heating system.  From the evidence of warm rooms and steamy showers that do not turn to ice water after just when one's hair needs to be rinsed of shampoo, the new furnace is perfect. Now about that hole in the wall...well, that is another story.
    
                                                              Tired old thing!

 

Burned out inside

Shiny New One!

Installed-Now we need a carpenter.

So the house is warm and toasty and the water is warm.. We do lose heat when the power goes out, and I long for the fragrance and ambience of burning wood. I DO NOT miss the work of a wood stove after stoking fires and cleaning ashes for fifteen years, but it would be nice to have  one sometimes.