Just found out I’m cool…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/garden/21cold.html?ref=style

…or maybe just cold, brrrr.

It’s -17 ° Celsius right now (about 1°F). That’s cold. I had to go out and start up both cars. I pray that they will start up tomorrow. I ran across the article above by accident. If you haven’t got the time to read it, it is about people who live year round without heating in their homes, on purpose. I don’t have heating in my house, on purpose, well at least for now, if being broke qualifies as on purpose.

our domeczek

It was recommended by our renovation contractor that we not install any central heating operated on heated water in the radiators since we were planning to use our house as a dacha. It was argued that it would be too much of a bother to drain the whole system after each visit in the winter or to keep it heated the whole time when we were not there. He also guaranteed that after draining the insulated water pipes we have now, we would never ever have a problem with frozen pipes. Are you laughing? Of course, he forgot to tell us about one (just one) U in the pipe where the water collects and could get frozen. It did and we fixed it with another contractor. We are heating our house this winter. Well, at least enough to keep 2 rooms and the bathroom warm and the water pipes from freezing. Oh, the family togetherness!

the barn

For the future, we are considering either to stick with the no-water plan and install a piec kaflowy (wood/coal burning tiled stove) or go all out with a regular heating system perhaps eko-groszek (pellets). The piec kaflowy has a rustic, romantic feel but requires more work to operate than a normal furnace such as the pellets one. We’ve already met with a zdun (stove fitter), but we still cannot decide. We will wallow in our indecision until next winter hits and we have to worry once again about our pipes.

at Babcia’s

Keep warm!