Thanks again for the positive feedback! DH and I met with the owner of the restoration company yesterday, so I thought I'd post an update. I've definitely learned an important lesson. This is the gist of our meeting. 1. The stain can be removed without damaging the logs. He sampled an area with his alcohol based stripper and it looks great. He applied the stripper with a paint brush and then scrubbed it with a scotch brite pad. The stripper is what furniture re-finishers would use. No water, no sand blasting, no sanding. 2. None of our logs were prepped properly (i.e. not all the gray wood was removed before staining). This is actually evident if you look at the "finished" bear paw log. The bottom of it still has gray staining. They will fix that on the inside and outside. The special brushes they use remove the gray wood without affecting the handpeeled logs (he demonstrated this in an area too- osbourne brushes - it's amazing). 3. The outside of our house did not have enough stain applied. This would have led to problems within 1-2 years. They are going to apply another heavy coat of stain. 4. Minor flaws in the logs from transport were not repaired. They are going to fix this too. Anyway, I think this is another example of the need to hire good, experienced, and well-trained trades. The painter who finished our logs is a good painter, but he has never finished logs before. Our contractor has never built a house like this before, so even he didn't know what kind of skill was needed to finish these logs. Obviously, DH and I didn't know any better, or we would have insisted on this restoration company to begin with. However, thanks to that "mistake", the right guys for the job are here and I'm going to have a beautifully finished house! Pay for good work everyone, it will save you money and hassle in the long run. Luckily, I feel like DH and I are following this advice with all other aspects of our build.

Where is the house located? Tiger has the right answer most likely. It is possible for a leaky house in the North to get that high even with low set temps. Sorry that your fixer upper is going to be big fixer upper. I'd probably talk to neighbors to see what they have done. You basically have 3 good options (assuming no NG) - geothermal, mini-splits or conventional Air source heat pump. The ASHP will be the least upfront cost but it won't be cheap since you need to install ductwork. Even a small house will be $10k+. Minisplits may not be that much more and will be more efficient and offer more control. There is much more visual units but there is little ductwork to install. Geo is probably 50% greater cost even with tax credit but will have lower run costs (WAG - the price varies a lot with locality). Or make the house a summer only cabin.

Sorry to hear that your furnace died. They always do that when you need them the most. What you need is a warm little lap dog to keep you toasty warm. Mine does that even when I have the heat on. But do stay under a blanket and drinks lots of hot beverages. You don't want to catch a chill. That happened to me one winter while DH was away on a business trip. I kept the fire going in the fireplace for 2 days. I didn't want to call a repair guy because DH does all the repairs and most outfits charge an arm and a leg. It turned out to need a new ignition switch which only cost a couple of bucks at the time. You can guess how much a pro would have charged. Clare

Don't forget that the rates have gone up dramatically and the baseline has gone down. The baseline wouldn't cover a house half the size of yours. Also, they are adding a monthly penalty starting 1/2018. We had three huge panels and still jumped to tier 4 almost immediately. Prior to solar, our summer costs exceeded $1200/mth, after solar the highest was $950. I'd check the seer rating on the ac, that is probably contributing. Also, you can get an exemption if someone in the household has a disability that requires greater consumption