My pre-Civil War farmhouse in northern NY has no central heat. Always was, and still is, heated with woodstoves. Ours are more efficient and cleaner burning, now. It went through a period when it had coal stoves, but they are awful to live with and a serious health hazard so I wouldn't recommend that. You may not need A/C. Unfortunately the easiest route to A/C is also the least attractive sort of heating: forced air. But you already have some investment in the infrastructure for hydronic heating (hot water radiators). I disagree with other posters about the relatviely efficiency of hot water cast iron radiators vs. hot water in baseboards. Love the first, loathe the second. There are very high efficiency gas-fired boilers (to make the hot water for the radiators and your DHW) if you need to replace the boiler. Fracked gas is much cheaper than Venezuelan oil right now. But tightening up your house and some forms of insulation will give immediate rewards now matter what the season. Before you embark on this however, do read a lot about it as what is often recommended for "newer" old houses (post WWII) is not necessarily the right thing to do with really old houses. Really old buildings that are still extant have a different way of handling air infiltration and moisture ventilating. Combining modern standards with the older technology can get you in trouble. Also do not replace deteriorated old windows. In most instances they can be rehabbed to excellent energy efficiency, while retaining a very critical piece of your house's original design. And old windows, if they need re-rehabbing in another 50-75 years can be done, but newer windows will just be on an endless replacment schedule. One thing that you quickly realize when working with a 19th c house is that what most home improvement purveyors think of as loooooooong warranties, (10-25 years), is barely out of "brand new" when looked at in the context of 150-200 years of service. The very best thing you can do for your house at the outset is nothing other than clean it up and study it for 6 months to a year. Paint some walls, if you must put your own stamp on the place. The ideas you have now need to be informed by what you will discover about the house. And that goes double, or treble, if this is your first old building. The most risky thing for old buildings is a new owner whose bank balance wasn't completely depleted in the purchase. Lucky is the house whose owner had to scrape every penny together for the closing. That's a built-in period of early financial rehabbing instead of early building rehabbing. Below is my standard internet "housewarming present " for new owners. It's a set of documents about caring for old buildings from just common old buildings to museum-level buildings. The principles and methods are the same. And it comes from a non-commercial source (The National Park Service) so they're not trying to sell you anything. Two other valuable websites: John Leeke's (particularly good on structural issues, paint, weatherization and windows): www.historichomeworks.com and a forum of very knowledgeable old-house enthusiasts: www.wavyglass.org (there maybe a "e" in wavy, not sure). HTH L. Here is a link that might be useful: National Park Service Series of Preservation Briefs of many aspects of caring for and repairing old buildings

Plain soap and and water can do wonders, but other than a good scrubbing, I wouldn't do anything else until I was ready to move things around. The layout is far from ideal. Address that first. I'm surprised the wallpaper isn't scorched! And there is no real work space either, There might be 12" between the sink and range, despite there being a lot of counter space. It's all in the wrong spots.

Texasgal47- Yes, the front door would be near the kitchen area. The space just off the office is actually a mudroom for when we come in from the garage. Backpacks, jackets, shoes. I love builtins! I'm sure it was wonderful having a husband who could do all that! My stepdad is a wonderful woodworker, so I'm sure he'd pitch in to help with a few things like that. lavender lass- Thanks! we are actually wanting to go a bit smaller. We owned a home previously that was 975 sf and I think short of not having a second bath, it would have worked wonderfully! I know not everyone likes the idea of being that cozy, though. One of the things I truly do NOT want is my living room by the front door, but I may have to be flexible with that. Luckily my husband's background is in HVAC.When he gutted our current home, he and his brother did all the wiring, added ductwork to the entire house, new pex plumbing, etc. Almost every sq inch of this current house is new. It just lacks trees and space. And not tomatoes - but as cute as the house may have been as a cottage- I have dreams of this being more mid century modern. I think that JoAnna has great taste, and I would love for her to decorate my home any day! As far as the kitchen size goes, I was basing it off of my current kitchen that is similar in dimensions. It would also be open on the north side to accommodate folks sitting on the other side. I think I drew the dining table a bit large, lol With that being said, I am currently reevaluating this current layout, for something more simplistic and streamlined. (mainly for cost reasons). I am imagining a shed roof, with rain barrels to collect as much as possible off it. the entire north side being glass/and doors to the outside, attached garage with loft space that will be dedicated to my husbands home office, since he works from home full time. I think we could finish the attic space for the kids dedicated play space/media room, and a deck that would run the entire length of the home. I also am doing some research on alternate siding/roofing for the home, as well as an inexpensive alternative to drywall. (is that even possible???) lol I really hate drywall.

I recently went through this with my own house (built in 1892 in a large city), and it looks very similar to yours. And given my related education, I went down quite the research hole! First, the years given for eras of architecture, art, and design histories are the popular years — so it is possible for a person to build a Victorian house after it fell out of popularity, especially considering these particular architecture eras (Victorian, Edwardian, etc.) are based on the years of queens and kings (i.e., Queen Victoria‘s reign was 1837 to 1901). But I think there is definitely something to you finding the earlier record and the information about the fire. In my city, they started classification at the year 1900, so homeowners with the year 1900 have to take additional steps to dig deeper for the exact year — I got lucky and found my house with the label “being built” on an 1892 map. Secondly, the use of “folk” and “farm” are generalized terms. The style of your house is Victorian Carpenter Gothic — this is a specific type of the Gothic revival period that took place during the Victorian era. If it would’ve been built in a rural/farming area, then it would more so be referred to as folk or farm, or even Rural Gothic. The Carpenter Gothic house style was extremely popular throughout the US, as the invention of the scroll saw allowed basic carpenters to easily create ornate trim from wood or purchase it from mass-produced options. A general google search for Carpenter Gothic house will yield a ton of results from extremely ornate houses to simpler versions (like your house). I spent so much time looking at examples online to brainstorm the exterior rehab I’m doing, I finally checked out a book from my library called “Storybook Cottages: America’s Carpenter Gothic Style” by Gladys Montgomery, and it’s a great resource of photos and history — I highly recommend it! You can also buy it used on Amazon. And if you want to try and find your house on a map, one of the best sources are Sanborn maps; that’s where I found my house mapped. You can view a lot of these maps on the Library of Congress’s website, and then filter the results for your state, city, year, etc. The Sanborn Map Compamny was based out of New York, but they created maps all over the country specifically for fire insurance companies to use in assessing liability in urban areas — so the maps also include details concerning building materials, number of floors, etc.