My hobby has evolved from studying old houses to renovating an old place of my own.
I was always obsessed with “fix it” shows, like This Old House, for example, and as soon as I had the chance to work on an old house of our 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 fantastic place to start, because it had no electricity, so how bad could I screw up? Of course with no electricity there was no temperature control, and there was no air conditioning, however the place had a rudimentary heating system, 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 many things that needed some TLC to get back to prime performance. It still worked, but every time I used that gas 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 gas furnace in duct tape I couldn’t stop it! I will need a new gas furnace at some point, but I think 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 while in the summers.