We didn’t do all the work, of course. We did what we could and then hired the people who really knew what they were doing for other things.
Like the plumber. We called a local plumber to come out, flush out the pipes and install a new toilet. Now after everything I have told you about the condition of the house, you didn’t think that I would leave the toilet that resided in the house when we bought it, did you? No way!
So we purchased a lovely, new, clean toilet and a new hot water heater. One of the odd things about this property was that it was on the village sewer system. I thought that was weird but I am happy we didn’t need to deal with a septic system on top of everything else.
In old country houses, most have no central heat and air, so you will find a propane tank in the yard and this is the gas used for heat and sometimes for the kitchen stove. We didn’t have a tank, but we knew we would need heat in a few months. I started calling the propane companies in the area. At every call, I was told that I would need to pay the back charges from the previous residents before the company would talk to us.
WHAT?! No way!
But I was told the same thing at every call – and I was calling companies at the far end of the county. I knew these people were dead beats but how was it that I was responsible?
After dealing with that for a few days, we started shopping for wood stoves. I began researching the latest models and what would be best for us. But then I saw the sweetest little green enameled woodstove. It was precious!  I had my heart set on this adorable wood stove until I saw the price – YIKES!
We worked with a wonderfully understanding man who owned a fireplace and stove shop and we settled on a great Earth stove. It had all the new bells and whistles and a nice big window so we could see the flames.
This moves us to the chimney incident. See the previous post and you will understand.
But it worked out and really the stove needed to be in the corner of the room. It faced the stairs which helped the heat move up to warm the bedrooms. And that thing would HEAT! We would add logs at night and there would still be coals in the morning. And I loved the quiet – just think – no furnace noise at all.

There were many others that helped us along the way and their stories will be in later posts.

until then …..