Frosty Belongs Outside

The big pay-off of getting the forced air heat re-routed? Comfort inside when it's very chilly outside. Last night, open water in the backyard froze to a depth of 1/8th inch. I'm not asking for and I don't expect empathy from anyone whose power got knocked out last week from an ice storm.

This is just me, rejoicing about realizing a goal held for several years. Living in Sandra's drafty old Victorian in Alameda we had very few choices about how to manage the heat. She had a furnace that was big enough, but the layout of the house meant all the heat whooshed right up two flights of stairs past the door to the attic and out. Moving to this house resulted in using electric heaters for two winters. That's about the most expensive use of electricity available to a consumer. I'd laid plans for how to solve the distribution of warm air two years ago, but it took until this past fall before we had the resources to do the project.

I am so grateful to finally, finally be comfortable in the house when it's freezing outside. This reward of home ownership is precious to me. I delight in frosty mornings, and my joy is even stronger now that there isn't an emotional hill to climb to get there.