A Preemptive Strike

I hate to even type this, but realistically, winter is right around the corner. Winter in the Northeast can be pretty brutal. The weather tends to be a bit depressing to say the least. But what can be even more depressing are the heating costs. Heating a large, older home can easily run over $500 a month. With things being the way they are, my husband and I made an educated decision to switch from oil to gas heat. We did this shortly after buying the house and have been happy with the decision.

Then, things went from bad to worse, and we decided to supplement our gas heat with a wood-burning stove. Last year, we got a great deal on an Englander wood-burning furnace and started shopping around for installation quotes.

Unfortunately, those quotes ran from $1500 to over $3000, and the whole project was put on hold until this year. After having set aside money for this project, we decided to go ahead with the installation. This is NOT a typical set-up-in-the-living-room kind of fire place. This very heavy duty stove will be hidden down in the basement and the heat will be pumped into the existing ductwork. According to Englander's website, the stove has "approx. 3,000 square feet heating capacity..." which is great, as that is roughly the size of the house. The wonderful people from Boxford Chimney are handling the installation as I type.

Seeing as I am widely known as the World's Coldest Person, this stove is my new best friend. I'll give an update once we've had the opportunity to see my new bff in action...