The Octagon House

The title? Per Floyd’s request as he has a great story to tell in tonight’s entry. So let’s start there. We are both collapsed in bed at the moment so I’m going to type for him as he narrates his tale:

Well we’ve owned the house for nearly two months now and I’ve put off testing the furnace for fear of problems. Due to the frigid temperatures of October (and my wife barely visible beneath 5 blankets, 4 shirts and 3 pairs of pants) I was finally prompted to turn on the untested beast. Naturally, it didn’t work. Diagnosing the problem to a stuck pressure switch (or so the blinking light on the furnace told me) I ordered a new part and anxiously awaited its arival.

Again, naturally, with the new part installed the furnace still didn’t work. The only possibility that remained to be looked at was a faulty blower (a $300 part…*shudder*.) I had to disassemble half the furnace to get the blower apart. Finally gaining access to the ventilation pipe, I discovered the source of my problems. At once it became apparant that the problem did not lie in the blower itself but rather a slightly ridiculous blockage in the chimmney pipe. I instantly pulled the pipe out and went to show Tara my find. In my excitment, as I waved the pipe and blockage around explaining how wonderful it was that it was not the blower motor I failed to realize what the blockage was.

A Large. Dead. Bird. I promptly removed it to the outdoors where I unceremonously flung it into the yard. Just to be thorough, I decided to open up the blower motor and make sure that there weren’t any residule avian remnants. Being thorough often pays off as I discovered a second bird, more dead then the first. (*insert Tara confusion here*) Having removed a good portion of nature from my furnace, I put everything back together and tentativly flipped the switch to test it yet again.

The furnace worked! So we sit toasty warm, and yet again, I can see my wife again since with a now warm house, she emerges from her blanket cocoon. Life is good.

Victory over Furnace and Fowl!!!

And thus ends Floyd’s dramatic conquest. I must say, it is entirely amazing to have heat! AMAZING! I love knowing that when I get up to go to the bathroom in the morning, I don’t have to don a coat and blanket to shuffle down the hall! Very liberating!

This was a very fruitful weekend. Floyd, my dad and Josh got tons done at our old house. I need to take some pictures there of the work Floyd has done, but I am constantly forgetting to bring the camera! I attempted to not spend all of the weekend in bed and partially succeeded! Floyd and Josh also worked on removing our old water heater in Sparland to replace with the new one we purchased.

Today I enjoyed some amazing time with my SIL Brittany. She helped me pack up nearly our entire kitchen and worked her butt off! That girl is amazing! We ended the evening back at eight sides to spend some quality time with Josh and Britt. I got to do her hair and we all just got to visit!

I ended the evening by working on my chest. Finished sanding it down and put the first coat of stain on it! Quite excited really, I’m very pleased with how its turning out!

All sanded and ready to go!

I take the pictures, I don't like to be in them! Ha ha! Hard at work staining!

Work in progress!

I'm in love!

Anyhow, I have a snoring Floyd next to me so I’m slightly distracted…I think I will end it here for now! I really want to answer questions that you have been posting, but some of the questions I have to actually get answers to! I would like to go up on the hill and visit Marge and Lou again, so if anyone has specific questions that they have about the house please feel free to post! I would like to interview them and then put it all on the blog. They are just a wealth of information about this home and the area and delightful people, I value their company!

One questions asked was how the home was heated way back when. I wondered the same thing as I found no obvious spots for a fireplace. I asked Lou that question the first time I spoke to him and he believed there had been two stoves in the home that heated the house. Floyd has found in the basement pieces of coal so that also leads us to believe that at some point there was a coal burning furnace that provided heat to this octagon house. It would have been ahead of it’s time, a more modern touch for the period but the house itself was a novelty so I wouldn’t be surprised that they would have had one for the house.

We have a slight announcement which may come as a surprise to some or maybe I’ve already spoken of it before. We have had so much wonderful support from family, friends and people I’ve never even met! So in order to properly thank and meet these kind people, Floyd and I are planning an open house. It won’t take place until we sell our old house and we would like to have a little more remodeling done before we open her up completely. But, the game plan is a Christmas themed event, hopefully in the beginning of December. We are also hoping to participate in the local area house walk through so I will keep you all posted on that extravaganza as well!

Well, I believe that is all for tonight. Thanks again for your comments, I adore hearing from you!