Thank you...I needed some positivity tonight x

What is your current budget for this phase? Have permits been issued and inspections passed for the water heater and furnace as they are now? You can get copies of permits at city hall. Will your changes have to conform to current building codes or will some things be grandfathered in?

There are all kinds of clever contraptions for installing shower curtains on slope ceilings for tubs. Depending on how much you want to spend, you can use the current plumbing with some awkwardness in showering or reverse the tub orientation (and all the plumbing) so you can stand under the eaves more easily.

Google "shower curtain rods for clawfoot tubs" for some hardware options.

Would that closet in your last photo be available for the hot water tank or would it fit and meet any local regulations? Looks like most of the modern amenities like hot water and HVAC have just been stuck into the living space with no consideration for other options. Can a shed be built that attaches to the exterior somewhere, is insulated and meets regulations? Here's a link for such as that.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=hot+water+tank+shed&atb=v181-1&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.offerup.com%2FtJU-czD9mYEVptTFpGPpjzWBnOY%3D%2F600x600%2F9537%2F9537ee8b97d84328b4b852d675bca7d4.jpg

@decoenthusiaste Exactly no consideration for sure. A challenge. There must be other options right? I don't think that the closet is big enough for even our small water tank, and we live in a wintery sub-zero climate so exterior probably not doable...but I'm going to look into that thanks!

It is an interesting house!

You want to think how to de-funkifie - and and create a plan that works towards that end.

It might mean building a small utility room. It might mean moving a wall or a door... but you want to think in terms of the entire house.

For example, I've swapped rooms around in a couple of older houses - and dramatically improved floorplans. I've closed down doors, widened doorways, etc. In one tiny 1880's house I moved the living room to the parlor, the dining room to the living room, and the kitchen to the dining room. The original kitchen (added on when the got indoor plumbing) became a sunroom.

I opened the ceiling of the kitchen up to the roofline and added skylights. It was beautiful, and light and functional - all while keeping the original doors and windows in the front and sides of the house.

You do probably want to consider a gas tankless heater. They are compact and can go in small places. They vent with plastic pipe - out the side of the wall or through the roof. You want to figure out how to get the furnace out of the hallway too.

If there's no space in the house, you might consider building a small utility closet on the outside of the home - say 3' x 5' or whatever. To keep it simple, make it accessible only from the outside. Put the furnace, tankless water heater and perhaps the electrical panel in there. I've seen this done in apartment complexes, for example.

Old homes have their charm, and you don't want to mess that up. Understand what's appropriate to your home. At the same time, it can be fine to make a contemporary bathroom, for example, if you don't bastardize the house in the process.

@Jake The Wonderdog thank you. A lot of great advice. I believe it's too cold here (Canada's Snowbelt) for an outdoor utility closet but I am going to look into that. Unfortunately I don't think the furnace spot is going anywhere :( - but we are looking at a slightly smaller furnace, perhaps putting the tankless on that same wall, and building a utility closet around it? Maybe opening the kitchen doorway to allow for more space to walk through. I love your creativity! I'm thinking our layout is pretty good (aside from the furnace and water tank) but you got me thinking.

Exterior utility room is completely doable in your climate. Fully insulate it. Build it with 2x6 studs with 6" of fiberglass insulation, sheet the outside with 1" of R-Max over OSB and then siding. Use gas appliances that pull outside combustion air (both furnace and water heater can do that). The furnace is likely to leak enough heat to keep the room toasty, but if not, you can add a small electric baseboard heater with a thermostat stat set very low as backup.

@Jake The Wonderdog what about the duct work and plumbing coming from the outside? Where would the duct work go?

Here's the thing: Assuming you don't have a budget for a complete gut right now, you develop a plan that let's you fix things right as you go along and have the money. So, for example, you add the exterior utility closet, move the water heater there, then move the furnace at a later date.

There's no point in moving the water heater into the living space near the furnace - that's not really fixing anything.

Keep in mind the utility closet would be attached to the house. The ductwork (and plumbing) would go through the crawl space - through a hole in the foundation. Some of duct work could go through the sidewall to upstairs rooms, for example. None of this would be visible or exposed to the outside - it would all be covered by a small enclosed well insulated utility shed that blended with the house.

BTW: I did something very similar to the back of a very small home to add outside storage. The foundation was concrete piers to 4x4 treated posts. The siding and trim matched the rest of the exterior siding and the roof matched the pitch of the main roof. It looked like a bump out, but it blended in.

@Jake The Wonderdog wow! now I'm buzzing thank you

The kitchen is an extension so I’m not sure the crawl space was extended to the back of the house - the obvious place to put a utility closet. (the left is our quirky joint, the right has it’s own furnace)
Is just getting a smaller furnace - this one is 22 years old - and building a utility closet around it a really bad idea? We could use the space obviously, but we could also use thousands of dollars

You have a cool house.

You are also a new homeowner and have an overwhelming amount of work to do. You also just spent a boatload of money getting to this point.

Make a plan so that the work you do, as you can afford to do it, is really fixing things.

The water heater has to get out of the bathroom. The furnace has to get out of the dining room. None of it has to happen now. Don't move the water heater to the dining room. Don't build a closet around the furnace. Don't waste money on fixes that aren't.

Consider if you should switch to hot water radiators and a small boiler (in bump out or cellar) - would that make it easer to solve duct issues? Consider if you should dig a partial cellar under part of the house. Would ductless mini-split heat pump work in your area? Open yourself up to some ideas.

The larger issue is that the original house never had indoor plumbing or central heat. It's been patched on each time - sucking up valuable space inside a small house and also not looking great. It's too bad this wasn't addressed when they did the kitchen, for example. A cellar - accessible from outside so as not to use interior space for stairs- would have solved the problem.

@Shauna Black

What did you mean by "the left is our quirky joint, the right has it’s own furnace"?

@Jake The Wonderdog it's a legal duplex. The larger side has a basement fit for their furnace and hot water tank. We thought about moving the furnace over to the other space...but was suggested if we ever wanted to split the house it's better to not have the furnace on the other side.

@Shauna Black Have you moved in yet?

Okay, I wasn't aware of that.

So, here's the thing: I've rehabbed a number of homes - both for myself and professionally at one time. My overall guiding principle is to respect the home, not mess things up, and actually fix things.

One of the ways that homes are disrespected is that they are cut up into small, funky, rentals. There's usually all kinds of bs (like a furnace in the dining room).

Earlier I said that the larger issue is that the house wasn't originally built with indoor plumbing and heat. I wasn't aware that there were two units. This isn't fixable as two units.

@Jake The Wonderdog can I ask why you think the furnace must be moved out of the living space? The cost of replacing with thinner furnace ($5000-6000), opening up the kitchen doorway, and creating a nice looking sliding utility closet to cover incl. tankless - over lifting the house (we'd have to do that for a cellar yes?) or mini-split ducts (we love that idea but they are also very costly and our electrical is now only just being bumped to 100 from 60 -) I'm not sure if we'd ever recoup our money for that. I'm going to look at rads.

@Jake The Wonderdog oh yes I hear you. I believe this "conversion" happened over 50 years ago at least. It is what it is. And I absolutely agree with you...this house has been disrespected for far too long. I fell in love with her at first sight & she def needs a lot of love. The positives are that we live in a very big theatre town and artist friends need places to live. One way we can help is to make our place comfortable and pet-friendly. But as an artist myself I am on a budget. And my fella being a teacher we are looking forward to our retirement years here. and we don't notice the furnace as much - strange but it's only been a few months. we've had several people through and none have offered such wise advice as you have.

@apple_pie_order yes. Sort of. The electrical is being replaced and upgraded, and the furnace has not been working properly so still quite cold. The former tenant was a smoker too so priming with some heavy duty stuff. Why do you ask?

Your house has plenty of charm, which can be maximized if done cleverly, as Jake has said. Unfortunately the best long-term fixes won't be cheap. I agree that it's better not to waste money on more patches, but plan and save as you work toward your goal.

An on-demand heater can be very small. Often the best ones are at point of use, so under a vanity, for example.

On the bathroom, what are the cast-iron pipes for? Removing those would create space. What is the vent behind the tub? I can see removing the tub and putting a shower in that corner.

Is your home well insulated? That can help significantly with heating.

Which side of the home do you live in and which side do you plan to rent?

@Shauna Black Thanks for info. I asked about living there because people often find that they would like to do things differently after they've lived in a house for a few months or a year. A full round of seasons shows the house in different light and with different views. It also demonstrates the warm spots and cool spots. This house has a lot of charm. From the backyard view, it looks like the previous owners loved their garden.

@Jake The Wonderdog has some wonderful ideas and great advice.

@latifolia thank you! I think we need a contractor and plumber first to map out the big picture for sure. We have a closet...it's long and thin and may be perfect for a water heater (please see pic) and it's directly behind where the potential shower wall is. the cast iron pipes is THE plumbing. I don't think the vent behind the tub is used for anything. YES. we want to do that. Put a shower there. is there any advantage to making the entire bathroom a wet room? The wall where the potential shower head would go is not very wide with a shower door - not wide enough to raise your arms to wash your hair I believe

We are renting out the much more up-to-date larger side (from the back it's the right) and living in the one with all the work and most of the character.

@latifolia I do think the house is well-insulated. We had no furnace working on sub-zero temps and it still remained around 55. New windows, newish roof, plaster and lath. This is a wee home...maybe 900 sq ft. When the furnace was/is working it was very pleasant and quickly heated.

@apple_pie_order thank you. I needed to hear all that. Patience, and spending some time with our home this year I'm sure will inform so many things. I have to keep reminding myself that we are not in a rush. I am looking forward to seeing what the garden has to offer! Thanks again...I really needed to hear this.

@latifolia,

The cast iron pipes are the main stack and vent. The house was not built with indoor plumbing, it was added later. Those pipes can't be removed reasonably. They can (and should) be covered in a re-do. They are fine for now.

I'm not sure what's on the other side of that partition wall that's to the right of the toilet - but something tells me it's part of being cut up into two units. If you cover the plumbing you probably don't have room for the toilet there. That partition wall was added, it should probably be un-added.

The ceiling vent in the floor outside the bathroom is one of those things that shouldn't have happened.

@Jake The Wonderdog some more photos - I'm not sure what you mean by partition. yes, that gd vent on the floor...keeps the upstairs wonderfully warm but is an issue if wanting to expand the bathroom.

Wet rooms require superb waterproofing, powered ventilation in most climates, and complete control of the floor slope throughout the area so that the drain operates properly. They are not good choices for older houses with uneven flooring and poor access to under-floor plumbing. A more workable choice would be a pre-fab shower unit in a comfortable size. A tile shower would be much more expensive than a pre-fab shower.

If you stand in your tub and mark the height of your head (or six or seven feet up, if you prefer to measure) on your three walls, you can run a line of blue tape around at that height to see how much "move around" space you'd have with a "D" or "C" shaped shower curtain rod. The height of the rod can be adjusted to fit the available space, but you can also buy different sized D and C shaped rods. The oval ones are also called "hoop" rods.

Kingston Brass D-Type Shower Curtain Rod, Polished Chrome · More Info

Utopia Alley Rustproof Aluminum Hoop Shower Rod With Ceiling Support for Clawfoo · More Info

Ok, so that wall in the bathroom is the staircase and not movable.

Part of what I'm objecting to is that they used a ceiling vent diffuser and installed it in the floor.

@Jake The Wonderdog if we got a newer thinner furnace they would move that vent to a better spot. What is the difference betweeen a ceiling vent diffuser and a floor vent?

@apple_pie_order riiiight awesome! So are you suggesting to extend the plumbing to the other wall, keep some sort of tub to keep shower curtain in at bottom, and just get an extended shower rod for extra space? No prefab shower? We would be fine foregoing the tub for shower

Thank you for all that re: wet room. Phew. Thanks for all of it!

My suggestion about shower curtains rods was an inexpensive solution for the current situation, assuming you want to be able to take showers more or less immediately in the clawfoot tub without touching the plumbing at all. That would give you a lot more time to think and plan for the future. If there's a shower elsewhere, just use that instead, of course.