...Or Not!

Between the last post and this one the weather did improve a bit - and we've been in Southern California for a wedding at Disneyland (do I hear an echo of a horse-drawn Cinderella-style carriage?). 

However, it's been grim since we returned a couple of days ago. (More on that trip later.)  The nature of our homes here (concrete and brick with no central heat) depends largely upon sunlight to warm them.  If the sun is out (i.e., it's warm-to-hot), the exterior of the house heats up and radiates warmth into the house through the night.

When the sun doesn't shine (cloudy skies, rain, et cetera) there's nothing to warm the walls and there is no heat to radiate inside the house during the evening/night hours.  A few days of this and our houses are cold through and through.

Don't suggest adding central heat.  We rent - and even if we didn't - few houses are configured to add heat.  There's no room for duct work, for one thing.  Nor room for furnaces unless you've a newer house that was designed for a heat plant.

Our home has a small balcony on the second floor where the water heater is housed and I suppose it could suffice (the water heater requires gas), but the heated air would have to be fed into the sala on the second floor and you could hope that it would make it's way down to the ground floor.  Adding duct work  to the ground floor would make the house look like something out of a sci-fi picture!

So we make do with free-standing LP heaters.  Venting?  I think not!  We just have to be careful and turn them off before retiring for the night so we'll wake up in the morning.  Or else leave a window open, but that sort of eliminates the use of a heater, eh?

But we're home from Disneyland (where the wedding took place), the dogs are healthy and happy to see us (and we're cooking a special stew of barley, carrots, sweet potatoes, and chicken in broth to augment their kibble), and we don't leave town until mid-January!  So what if it's a bit chilly?  That's why we have a growing closet of warmer clothes!  Wish I could type while wearing gloves....