My hobby has evolved from studying old houses to renovating an aged house of my own.
I have always been obsessed with “fix it” shows, like This Old House, for example, and as soon as I had the chance to work on an old place of my own, I jumped at it! It wasn’t a whole house, mind you, just a rustic cabin out by the side of the lake.
I thought this was a good place to start, because it had no electricity, so how awful could I screw up? Of course with no electricity there was no climate control, and there was no air conditioning. The place had a rudimentary oil furnace, with a natural gas furnace and a fireplace. The winters were nice, because how often do you get to build a nice fire? The natural gas furnace, on the other hand, was one of the several things that needed some TLC to get back to prime performance. It still worked, but every time I used that furnace I got the little hint of a foul odor in the background. I knew that it was leaking trace amounts of natural gas ,but as many times as I wrapped the parts of the furnace in duct tape I couldn’t stop it! I will need a new furnace at some point, although I suppose maybe I’ll just get by with a space heater, which should be plenty since I have the fireplace too. As far as the lack of air conditioning, I avoid that problem by staying away during the summers.