A Slow Start

Things are only just finally coming together at the house and studio. Our contractor, besides turning an attached shed into a tidy little studio space for me, installed a brand spankin' new boiler .. initially to heat just the ground floor (my studio space and a long library/entertainment area), but now the second floor and loft as well. This in addition to fix, replace and repair things as previously mentioned (a few costly and unexpected discoveries along the way). I had hoped it would all be completed by the end of December; but things never go as planned, and our contractor was waylayed with other issues elsewhere. I wasn't able to give the whole ground floor a good going over until the first week in January .. and believe me, it really needed it. I swore I wasn't going to clean down there until everything was completed and I only had to do that initial going over just once. It is SO wonderful to go down there and not only have everything clean n tidy .. but warm!

The house is a hundred feet or so from the Oswegatchie River, so it's built on a slab .. no basement. We still have our furnace and forced air system connected (though turned way down unless needed for backup) .. it's what we used before the boiler .. but the only registers on the ground floor were in the ceiling. Didn't really provide a whole lotta heat. Not much at all, in fact. Despite it's being furnished when we were looking at the house to buy, I think the former owners must not have lived on the ground floor during the winter months. It was usually no more than 55 degrees down there all last winter!

And speaking of winter months, we're getting our second round of long expected snowfall today. We're actually expecting accumulation overnight. The picture above is what it looked like out there this time last year. Not much yet. Though I'm in no hurry.