A trip to the basement

Yesterday, I went down cellar to take care of a few more weatherization woes plaguing this old house. When you're almost 130 years old, a few cracks are going to start showing. And some of your cracks may go clear through your foundation. So I got some spray foam and went to work. Just in case you can't see the grass through the crack above, I thought you might like to see how much light comes through.

Our chimney was unusable, so we had to install a power vent to avoid being killed in our beds by carbon monoxide. Now we have a giant pipe running from the oil furnace under the original part of the house into the crawl space under the first addition. The exhaust is pulled by a fan attached to the outside of the house near where my kitchen sink is located.

Over the years, this house has had every major heating fuel. Originally, there were wood stoves, one upstairs and one down. Then, there was coal, evidenced by a cool old control in our dining room (left). They also had gas at some point and left the old meter behind when it was disconnected (above).

And while I was downstairs, I found all of these jars. One lid still has a slogan for Kraft mustard. I like to imagine the women who used to live here putting up their food for the winter in the same kitchen in which I have been canning. 128 years of sterilizing and filling jars is pretty awesome. The heating fuel may change, the variety of the fruits and vegetables may change, but the process is still the same.