My husband and I are thrilled to be buying our first house.
It’s an older home on a quiet side street from a rural village.
It’s been wonderfully maintained by an older couple, although it hasn’t really been modernized. Still, you just can’t compare new homes, which to me seem a bit sterile, with the houses of yesteryear – at least when it comes to personality and charm. Our realtor discussed with us the age of the existing oil furnace, which is more than twenty years old. We are fully aware that it won’t be too long before we’ll need to replace it. Having said that, we will certainly need to start researching our options, since our street has gas lines and we could switch to a gas furnace. It seems that everyone we talk to about this has a different opinion. My brother insists that we stay with an oil furnace because, if they’re properly maintained, they can last up to thirty years. The existing furnace in the house is proof of that. And he pointed out that the new oil furnaces have high efficiency ratings, ranging between 80 and 90 percent. Also, an oil furnace itself costs less than a new gas furnace. But I started researching on the internet and found that, with gas furnaces, the real savings are in the fuel costs. I found it interesting that the price of oil can be affected by global events, since most of it is imported. Whereas natural gas production is centered in the United States and Canada. Anway, that decision doesn’t need to be made yet. Hopefully, our biggest decision for now is how to arrange the furniture once we move in.