My house was built in 1916 as a parsonage for the United Methodist-Episcopal South Church. No real owners - just transient ministers, so nothing interesting garden-wise. The most interesting features are an intricately-designed 15-ft.-deep cistern, and the brickwork of 3 chimneys that serve 6 fireplaces. I tilled most of the flower beds and ran across enough broken dishes and silverware to conclude that many a bad meal was served here over the decades! Also beds of used coal, garbage and antique bottles, even a piece of petrified wood. For reasons unknown to me, I found many old and very small horseshoes. Also found a silver Deutsche Mark minted in nazi Germany (complete with nazi symbol imprinted on front). But my very best find was while tilling up the front yard for sodding. Underneath several inches of soil I discovered a ruby Mason's ring. Many months later I found the owner. He was in his late 70's and had lost it while roofing the house several decades ago. He replaced the ring some time after losing it, but "retired" the replacement after getting the original ring back. He sacked groceries at the local grocery store and always raised his hand to my face to let me know he was wearing the original ring whenever I came in. In short, I love my old home so much that almost everything I have unearthed goes on display!

Once again as always Mongo - "Solid Advice" I am building a light feature on this project and am offering a second pair of eyes on another contractor who is building this shower sculpture. This other contractor is my main man Riccardo who has been out on his own since I shut down operations to build my house. This Water Sculpture if you will is a once in a lifetime project. I may never see it's equal again and to be part of this project was important to me. The designer is outstanding - a computer professor and a brilliant man. The home owner has assumed all responsibilities and has promised to leave the system as we leave it - SAFE AND UNDER FEED You would have to meet Holger to understand his vision. The shower is an Art Piece. So much detail and thought. Such beautiful fixtures chosen that you almost forget why you entered the room. I had my plumber rip out the new 2" work that just went in a few weeks ago so I could inspect and source the drop in flow rate. I found many faults and was not please this work had been done without first checking the old drain line. It is not a fun job scraping out years of shower scum, body hair and rust with your finger and a curved file handle. This is what it took to clear the huge hair ball I found and which I'm sure help slow my flow rate. I also found in attention to the gap in pipe another misaligned fernco which was I'm sure creating another eddy. I stopped by my plumbing wholesaler on the way into to work this morning and for fun picked up a wack of 3" couplings and 3" cast iron 45's and 22.5's. To my surprise with a little persuading (palm strike!) we managed to run a 3" drain line above the W/C line and have a 2"x3" MJ coupling right at the stack. The drain is still dropping through the slab in 2" but enters the PTrap that is 3" with another 2"x3" Fernco. I'm pleased to report that with all systems running "Full Blast" the drain assemble held true with out any water flow being restricted. The test was ran for almost an hour and we noticed at one point the water level rise a 1/4" and then 5 minutes later drop. ??? We think this was from when the upstairs neighbor drained her tub while our test was running. With these new flow rates I'm calculating a 40 percent restriction will net us a safe "Water Sculpture". We will need help from the upper resident to preform more "What If's"... You should never build a shower like this! It is so unsafe. Mongo's concerns are just and all his advice should be heeded. I offered the same insight and my client insisted that this is not his shower but his "Masterpiece". I can't myself believe the flow rates we achieved as these flow rates exceed the water volume testing I preformed at my home and exceed published max flow rates from the manufacture. We are building for an Artist, one who loves water and we have built his masterpiece. My hats off to Holger and DornBracht for putting such gems into our hands. It's sad we are wrapping up in a week. I look forward to the dinner party...

The boiler for our new hydronic heat system also takes care of the hot water for the house. We're told it's very efficient. Haven't seen the first bill, yet. We've already had one night down to 17F and our new heat source was a pleasure. No more noisy fan, temperature dropping too low and then too high, cycling on and off. The heat itself is very comfortable. The boiler is in the garage--we do hear a slight humming when it's heating--but there is no noise in the house. Our house is at 6400 ft elev in mountains where we have snowbanks around the house from late November into April. As one who wants to go barefoot in the house year round, I love having the warm floor--no more icy cold tiles. The travertine flooring holds the heat nicely. Haven't yet installed the hardwood floor in the living room and bedrooms. Wood, of course, does not provide the same mass to hold the heat. Our system has been zoned so we can adjust the level of heat provided in each room. It can get fairly warm in summer but most homes here don't have A/C. This summer, with our new dual pane windows and the mass of the hydronic floor in place our home stayed nicely cool, even when it was quite warm outside. Since we don't live here full time we do keep the heat at 55F to prevent pipes from freezing. Our new heat system will have a device that we can call ahead to bump up the temp several hours early so it's nice and warm when we arrive. Just one family's experience.

Here is what I think is going to play out best for you if you are going to be in the house long enough and will heat primarily with wood. Keep in mind that I am an amateur with absolutely no experience in duct systems. I decommissioned mine at the first opportunity and installed mini splits. I'll gladly accept all criticism from anyone that actually knows something. Berto, you've already said that you are going to have ducted AC, (I'd look at mini-split heat pumps, but that is me and I don't have the time to split wood.) It ought to be pretty simple to make a dual furnace system with a wood furnace first in series with the (second) propane or electric furnace. Your thermostat turns on the AHU blower (for me, ideally, a variable speed blower with a proportional thermostat). If the wood boiler is supplying sufficient heat the secondary furnace does not run. If the duct temp between the furnaces falls below a set temp (which might slide depending on outdoor temperature) the secondary furnace fires up. If the day comes that you tire of cutting and splitting wood, you pull out the cheap furnace and put in a mod con furnace. It is no biggie to toss that first furnace because it was inexpensive to start with. The duct system has to be designed to support both heat sources and cooling. The furnace that you choose will have to be just good enough to run a cooling system well which might be more costly than the least expensive that you might use for (back up) heating alone. Keep in mind that a (complicated) super efficient furnace or boiler is not going to be a good investment in a well-insulated and sealed house that is primarily heated with wood. The ROI time will look like infinity.