Over the past few years Wendy and I have been slowly trying to update and renovate our cozy little tudor style home. We have worked with an architect on a master plan that includes some really cool changes inside and out. Before we get to that, however, there have been a lot of necessary, but not so sexy, updates we’ve needed to make to the infrastructure of our house. We’ve sort of taken it at a pace of one major project per year. Roof needed to be replaced. Gutters needed to be replaced. Windows needed to be replaced. Siding on the 2nd floor needed to be replaced. Last year we needed to deal with waterproofing the basement and shoring up the foundation.

We actually accelerated things this year with two major projects and a minor project. This past spring we tore out the old concrete steps in our front yard and poured a new front patio. Just a few weeks ago we replaced the green monster. Our home came complete with an ancient green boiler about the size of a small Sherman tank. Estimates of its age put it somewhere in the 50-70 year range. It was terribly inefficient and the heat escaping out of it turned our bedroom (on the floor right above it) into a virtual sauna each winter.

We replaced it a few weeks ago along with our hot water heater with new, high-tech units. The new boiler is a fraction of the size and looks like a jet engine. We can already tell the difference. It still keeps the house nice and warm but heat escaping off the old boiler used to make it nice and toasty in the basement boiler room. Now it’s like a typical chilly basement.

The old boiler is still sitting in the basement. The contractor discovered upon trying to tear it out that the core of the old boiler is made of steel and weighs a ton (pretty literally). They’ve spent weeks trying to get someone here to cut it in pieces and haul it out. Looks like that will finally be completed next week.