If you’re not familiar, that’s what we call toes in our house:)  Our one other area that we splurged on in this was on something that can’t even be seen.  It about killed me but I knew in the long run we were all going to appreciate it so much.  And yes…we do:)

When we first bought this house it had radiator heaters in the bedrooms and one in the living room (which we have since taken out, spray painted white, and put back in….paint never ceases to amaze me:), and then they also had these great wall heaters that cranked out a ton of heat…but didn’t quite fit my decor.  Here’s a peak at them…

Now, if you know my hubby, you know he can do just about anything. But the one thing he specializes in is heating and cooling. So, it just about killed him to have a house that he couldn’t have a furnace. Now some of you may realize it off the top of your head but others may be saying…why can’t you have a furnace?? Well, back in the day they didn’t have furnaces so they never ran ductwork. And to try to put duct work into a house that doesn’t have a full basement and tight quarters between levels is near impossible. Let me tell you, Ry thought and thought an thought about how we could put one in…it just wasn’t going to work. So, the next best option for heating was in-floor heat. Usually this is quite an easy process if you are building your home, but in a pre-existing home it is a bit more challenging…and expensive! But we decided it would be worth it! So, I’m going to give you a peak of what is under our toes on the whole main level…

Wow, some days I’m still amazed that we lived in this house like this…what a journey. But anyway, the warmth under our toes is coming in from this maze of tubing under our feet.

here’s a better shot. So this is what we layed under all of our flooring now. Even though this stuff doesn’t look very pretty, it’s not cheap!! Kinda a bugger. It actually cost us about 4 times the amount that our actual flooring did. When most people do in floor heat they put it in cement. We couldn’t do that because our foundation was already poured, and it probably couldn’t withstand the weight of a layer of cement. This is our only option. So at about $5 a foot, we bought this. Here’s how the whole thing works..

So this is the little boiler that heats our main level. Boy am I in love with her. She pumps the warm water through those hoses that keep our feet warm! Before we got this little guy up and running, and she wasn’t running until November…my feet would freeze! If you’ve never lived in a house without a basement then you don’t realize that there is not much insulation under you, therefore the floors are always cold. That’s how it was. I would have my slippers on and my feet were still cold. What a treat to walk down in the morning now onto warm floors. It’s pretty much amazing!!:) What’s also amazing is that my hubby can do all of this himself! I am seriously amazed by you babe!! This splurge set us back about $5000, but if we would have had to hire it out, it would have been more like $8000-$9000!! Now that’s quite a savings:)

So, we got to say goodbye to our old wall heaters and hello to warm tootsies!

This is how we walk around now:)