Buying a House in NY

We’ve been trying to buy an appartment or a house in the area for a few months now, and after a few failed attempts (rejected offers, failed inspections, etc), it looks like we finally found something — an entire house up in White Plains, NY. Aside from having to adapt to suburban life, my commute will actually be the same as it is now from Jersey City. Anyhow, that’s all not that interesting to you, I’m sure, so let me get to the point.

We’ve decided on a beautiful 1923 colonial-style house, and as any old house it needs a little bit of work. The most interesting part is the heating system. The house has nice old steam radiators which are powered by one of the scariest pieces of equipment I have seen in a basement to day. An old ca. 1930s furnace which seems to be and old coal furnace which was then converted to oil. The icing on the cake (yeah, really, the white stuff on the furnace) is lovely asbestos. At first, I was a wee bit freaked out about it, but I quickly learned that this is pretty normal in these old homes. Obviously the removal of the monster and the asbestos will be the first thing before we move in, but I wanted to share some pictures of this antique.

Also notice the quite beautiful old yellow-brownish gauge on the monster. I almost wish it had more switches, levers, and knobs on it. I actually got a good laugh out of the “SUPER FUEL CORP” sticker.

As a (non-fundamental) environmentalist I must really wonder what emissions this thing creates (aside from the atrocious efficiency). It’s got to be the equivalent of thousands of cars per year.

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