My old home...

[Jerry]

My last house was built in 1863. Great place, but took a lot of maintenance. Before I left it had a high-efficiency natural gas furnace, central air, new screen porch, new eve gutters, a lot of new paint, new ceiling plaster in 2 rooms, and a whole lot of yard work done. Some wiring was upgraded, but still had some to replace. A new roof was the next major project.

Best of all it had an old shed that was converted to a large garage, could park 3 cars, my snowmobile trailer, the XJ, and still had room for a work bench. The 10 x 13 storage shed out back was nice to have as well. Lot was 100 ft by 250 feet, so large by any standard.

A gravity fed water heating system works on the syphon method. Hot water from the boiler will rise to the highest point in the cooling system (radiators) and cold water will flow to the lowest...the boiler. Thus the water keeps circulating through the heating system. Lot of factors control how big or small a system you can have, boiler heat output, feet of piping, number of stories in the house (vertical rise) but a well-built system could do surprising well.

[tommystinson]

That's a gravity setup (like mine) to be sure. The concept is very simple, but system design is a lost art. It's "gravity" because hot water rises and cold water sinks. A cubic foot of water at 170 degrees weighs almost 2 pounds less than one at 40 or so. Gravity systems used large diameter pipes to allow flow of warm water up to the radiators where it "gives up" it's heat then returns to the boiler. All piping is installed on a slight incline to or from the boiler. In a multi-story house, the flow is exactly the opposite of a forced circulation system- the upstairs gets the flow first, which still seems weird to me. Radiant heat is fantastic, no drafts or blowers kicking on, etc. But I replace the boiler, I'll have to use a circulator pump, a whopping 1/50th of a HP! All of the radiators and most of the original iron pipe will stay. During the heating season the pump will run all the time, and the boiler will fire as it needs to. It's pretty amazing that something almost 100 years old still works, and works well. It's just the lack of efficiency that will make me remove it. This boiler started out as coal fired, then was converted to oil, and eventually to gas sometime in the 60's. Put a big turkey-fryer gas burner inside a charcoal grill...

[Glarusguy]

Hmmm... I don't really know anyone here, but I figured I'd jump on the house complaining bandwagon. I bought an early 1900's home in a nice lil community. It needed alot of work, but I was, am, young and the price was right. Left me with hardly any time and money to do anything. I started by repairing the foundaton. Then I gutted one of the first story rooms and fixed the rotten wood above the foundation where a contractor in the seventies added the room and piled the outside soil about 1 foot above the concrete. Room was left that way with exposed floor joists and generally gutted. Then there was this great idea to start another addition between the garage and house. Garage was actually lower than the house, so I dug out the soil between. (was a landscaper at the time. A guy can get real far into a project with the right tools) Seemed a good idea at the time. Nothing a home equity loan wouldn't fix. Except for in the middle of everything and before the loan...my wife decided to leave, and I ended up getting rid of the money pit...The house too. lol Was a hell of a time trying to sell it for at least what my original "right price" was.

Now I have time, money, and a wonderful woman.
I'm done now. Thought I'd add.

[cueball]

Mobile homes look real good, especially when the weather turns cold.

[tommystinson]

It's an old thread, but here's a follow up: Replaced the boiler over the winter, 96% efficient condensing unit. Removed all the asbestos, hundreds of pounds of cast iron, etc. Replaced the entire exposed domestic water plumbing, the old stuff was quite a crows nest. Had the roof replaced a month or two ago. 6 tons of crap stripped off and then re-shingled. $9500 for the roof, $4800 for the DIY boiler and plumbing. I saved about $3k on the boiler doing it myself. I saved $8-10k doing the asbestos removal myself, which almost all contractors seem to require before they'll even open their toolbox. It feels good to have it done, but perhaps not as good as a new FJR1300 in the driveway.

[webbcraft2150]

Bought a home brand new in Rio Rancho, NM (look it up) in '78. Cost me 32,500, on a corner lot no less!!! Added 600 sq ft addition in '97. Always liked tinkering with it (kinda like the XS). Made it a rental (worst thing I could have done) when I moved to Austin a couple of years ago. Need to unload that casa for sure. Nice thing is, last appraisal in 97 put it at 98K, that was before the addition was added. Owe 'bout 12k now. Might be able to squeeze enough out of it to buy a overpriced house in Austin>

[motoman]

Bought home new in '97, 3bdrm, 2 bath, 2 car garage, rancher style(one level), replaced carpeting year ago with real hardwood floors. Other than that, haven't had any maintenance cept for mowing lawns after I went and planted a yard front and rear.