The new boiler was installed on Friday and we have heat. At one point, I started to feel sleepy and achy, my eyes stung, and I would have sworn I was coming down with a cold. At the same time I could smell the solvents they were using and Don suggested I go outside for a while. That made everything better – I think I was having a reaction to the chemicals. We opened some windows and the fresh air did the trick.
Brenda asked me what a boiler is. She’s used to furnaces. A boiler heats water which flows through pipes, in our case, through pipes that run in our baseboard heating. A furnace heats air, which is blown throughout the house. Our boiler is fueled with heating oil, which seems to be the predominant way of heating a home out here in the East.
Let’s take a walk around the property. When I was forced outside the other day by the fumes, I grabbed my camera. There really is beauty to found even in the brown, stark landscape of late fall and winter.
Linking to Elaine’s Sunny Simple Sunday.
If you click on this link, you’ll see my home featured today on Cozy Inspiration.
Happy Sunday.
So glad the heat is up and running – you found some great pics of beautiful nature!
Thank you, Mary!
Wonderful photos! I am so glad you have a new furnace! Stay warm! Hugs, Linda
Ironically, it’s very warm outside today.
I’m glad you have heat! We used to have an oil furnace years ago when we lived in Tallahaasee, and it would run out of fuel in the middle of the night. We would wake up with our kitties (all three) bundled in on top of us. LOL We could never figure out how often to get oil because the furnace was so old and tricky. But it happened twice. So I’m happy you got a new one and can stay nice and toasty this winter.
Love those red berries, Claudia. What are they?
XO,
Sheila
They are berries on the wild rose bushes that are everywhere around here.
Nice pictures! Glad your boiler saga has a happy ending. We’re supposed to have 67 degrees today and 36 tomorrow! Yikes!
It’s warm here, too!
Good question Brenda. Life is so diverse throughout this big country ~ I learn a lot from bloggers (:
Me, too.
Hi Claudia, Hope your new boiler works great. You and Don have had your share of repairs this year. Hope next year will ease up on your wallets. Thinking of you, Susie
Yes, I say “Enough already!”
Glad the boiler’s up and running ! : ) I too have a boiler but it is natural gas fired….out of habit I still call it ‘furnace” ! I I guess that I’ve had furnaces longer than this boiler and forget to call it by its rightful name!
Lovely Pics….
I say furnace a lot, too, Debra. That’s because I grew up with one.
Glad you have heat, and so glad the fresh air set you right again. Lovely pics, especially the squirrel!
He was right outside the kitchen window.
Hurray for you! I hope you got some restful sleep last night. We have a boiler, too…wow, they make a lot of noise but it’s a homey sound I’m used to. Happily, we don’t need heat today, it’s 64 degrees!
Your pictures really are wonderful…just when I thought there was nothing pretty to see outside!
Have a great day!
XO,
Jane
You, too, Jane.
Wonderful fall photos… and happy that your cozy home is cozy once again. :)
Thanks, Tracy.
So happy you are warm again! Nice pics…have to ask…are the squirrels tails bushier than normal out there? Ours are huge, and that’s supposed to signal a harsher winter…thoughts? Enjoy your Sunday! ;)
You know, I’ll have to look more closely. I have a feeling this winter will be fairly harsh – we got off so easy last year.
I was forced to tun on my heat yesterday evening as I was so chilled inside….held my breath and YES! it worked lol
I like your way of heating much better than mine. I grew up with that and although we always had static electricity that would shock kitties noses, the house was always cozy throughout…not like here where one room is stifling, the other chilly. Glad you’re toasty.
z
Do you have those in-the-wall heaters, Z? We had them in Southern California.
So glad that’s fixed. Your pictures are so pretty. It’s turning cold here this week. Rainy and dreary!! YUCK!!
Judy
Hang in there, Judy. How was your shopping trip?
These photos are so beautiful, and many of the plant life is foreign to me. Living on the Gulf Coast, we still have the windows open with no need for heat just yet.
Thanks for the link party!
You’re welcome!
Hi Claudia,
We just purchased a cozy Cape back home in Plymouth, MA that my husband only got to see once before he left for an overseas assignment for two years. Just had an energy audit done and found out that the boiler and hot water heater need to be replaced before they can come back and do the blow in insulation for us. I picked out this house on a typical military nine day trip to purchase a house. I love old and my husband loves new. This house had the best of both, an original 1954 style up for me and the previous owners had converted the drive under garage into a great family room, office and laundry room in the basement which appealed to Joe’s sense of newness.
When I email him to tell him about the latest ‘need’ I can practically hear him thinking ‘if we only bought new’ to which my response is: ‘it will be like new b/c we are replacing everything:-)’. We too have a forced hot water boiler only it is fueled by gas. There are baseboards here as well but I so wish it were radiators insead. Maybe I’ll have to search salvage yards to truly have my retro home. At any rate, I feel your pain on what this does to the pocketbook.
Hope you are enjoying your weekend! Tomorrow think of all those who have served, both past and present!!
I’m sure our home used to have radiators as it was built in 1891. It also clearly had a wood stove in the living room – you can see where it used to be.
Congratulations on your ‘new’ old home! I love Massachusetts and have been to Plymouth. So pretty!
I see Scout lost some of her fur on a branch.
Brenda
Har, har! That’s a milkweed pod, silly. Although I have seen tufts of Scout’s hair around the property, especially when I’ve just brushed her.
You mentioned a radiator in one of your blogs, does the heat come out of that? You just brought back a huge memory for me, living in Michigan we had a coal room and this big old furnace. When I had to go down in the basement it gave me the heebie jeebies as it was so creepy w/that furnace. At least it’s fixed and you guys will be nice and toasty.
I don’t remember why I was speaking of a radiator, but the heat comes out of baseboard heating that runs along the base of our walls. I find it slightly annoying, only because it makes it hard to put any furniture flush against the wall.
When I lived in Boston, I had radiators in my apartment. Sometimes so much heat would come out of them that I would have to keep the windows open in the winter!
I am glad you have heat. It is terrible that the furnace had to be replaced. I dread having to replace something like that. We have a heat pump here because of our mild winters and mostly we burn wood in a wood stove to save money. I love the warmth of heat from a fire. This year we have to buy firewood as we had no hardwood trees down around us. I thought of you several times today as I was fiddling with HTML code but I got it figured out.
I’m glad you got it figured out!
Hurray for repairmen and having heat! We have a pellet stove which gives us lovely radiant heat from a fire.. it hums a lot but it’s a small price to pay. Have a nice Veteran’s Day! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
I hear good things about pellet stoves, Teresa.
Glad you are warmer and the fumes are hopefully all gone. I can’t stand being cold. It always feels like I will never warm up again. Love the photos. Yes, there is beauty even in brown :)
Hugs,
Laura
There is indeed, Laura.
Hi Claudia, I love your new format! Getting outside at this time of year can really be quite a treasure hunt. I remember one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories was actually staying home with my husband and two young children for the day, and going on a hike. We found so many beautiful dried flowers and seed pods that day – it was really magical. I wonder if they remember the day? Take care, glad to see that you are okay and survived the storm. I will try to catch up on your latest blog posts, think I’m back in BlogLand for the time being – I’ve really miss documenting what goes on in my life. xxoo
It’s so great to hear from you! Welcome back!
I had the same problem with my new furnace and duct work..For months..(wasn’t living here yet..Sore throat, ears, in to my lungs..I blamed it on the filthy carpet with all the dry wall dust in it..They took the carpet out and it went away but the windows were open because it was cooler..The day before I moved in, I had the heat on and it was still a problem…VERY SCARY…They changed the filter four times and it’s OK now…thank goodness..I was worried about molds…
Glad you’re okay now, Missy.
Love that milkweed photo, Claudia! And I so enjoyed the tour of your home! The French doors, the buffet>kitchen island, your little studio, the shades, EVERYthing! It is totally lovely.♥
Thank you so much!
Great pix! I really liked the bittersweet and the squirrel. How did you get him to pose for you? :)
He was outside the kitchen window and so he didn’t really know I was there!
PS–Congrats on the new boiler and warmth!
We’ve got the heat on for the first time this fall, but I’m sure it will be on for just a little while to warm up the house. This is our first real cold snap, and that’s not very cold!
Your pics are lovely — there’s beauty to be found everywhere. I especially like that 4th photo, and I’m wondering what that fuzzy thing is!
It’s a Milkweed pod, Sarah.
I’m smiling of you being snug and warm. More cold days and nights are coming. We have electric heat – not my favorite.
I think those are rose hips. What do you think?
Those photos are lovely, Claudia. There really are such treasures in the garden year round for those who look closely. I’m so glad you have heat again. I have a burner/boiler that uses gas but it forces water through pipes into radiators. I love putting my nightdress on the radiator at night and then jump into cozy warm clothes before bed.