NCQUILTER: Furnaces, Gas Logs, Wood Stove, and curtains.

Who remembers "Sesame Street" and the song "One of these things is not like the others.....etc". Well, it would seem that one of these things in the title is not like the others, but I will tell you why it actually belongs in this group.

Meet Mabel. She has lived in the basement furnace room for about 30+ years. Mabel has been sick for the last three years, and she is finally not earning her keep. David has nursed her through a lot of aches and pains and even replaced a lot of her parts, but she just doesn't have the energy to perform any longer. Time to retire.

We thought that we would just put Mabel out to pasture and replace her with a modern version of herself, but the person offering the replacement wanted more money than we were willing to spend. SO--------here is our plan. We have a

Gas Insert for the old fireplace in the living room and.....

a wood stove in the dining room (best thing we ever bought!)

And Mabel used to furnish fuel to heat the water that ran through these baseboard radiator units in all the rooms. Very nice source of heat (no forced air, so less allergies).

Wall mounted heaters have been ordered and received to replace the baseboard heat. We will install three to see how we like them, and if they work well, we will order more for the rest of the house. Between the gas insert, the wood stove, and the new heaters, we think we will have more heat than we need for the winter. They will be nice because each room can be individually controlled, so whatever is not in use does not have to run (except to keep things from freezing, like bathroom pipes). AND the cost is about 1/7 of the central system replacement. Here are the uninstalled heaters...they come in 6', 4' and 2' (I think) lengths.

So this brings me to the reason that the curtains belong in a group with heating devices. The curtains in the living room and breakfast room were purchased just to add a little color (but not function...we have shades) and they came to the top of the baseboard units. Instructions on the new heaters say that any fabric has to be at least a foot away from the heater, so I had to redo all the curtains before he could use the heaters. They are now windowsill length.

Because we like a lot of light, David was always "scrunching" up the curtains, so while I was at it, I made little holders for them to allow the most light to shine in. Added a few little buttons and there you have it.

Living Room panel (there are four flanking three windows)