The excitement of today's Friday afternoon involved learning about our boiler--what more could someone want? Really? Well...the obvious answer is, of course, two boilers! Our lovely home has two boilers ('87 and '93) because when it was a duplex, the first and second floor each had a separate thermostat...and its very own boiler.





Loren and I are led to believe that a surprising number of buildings in Ann Arbor have steam heat systems--most likely campus represents a sizeable chunk, but at least a couple of our new neighbors have steam or hot water heat. After 2.5 hours with Lee, our plumber/boiler expert, I have a somewhat clearer concept of what responsible boiler maintenance means. It seems to be lifting a lever, every few weeks, to flush out the built up sludge, rust, and minerals that have flowed back down through our network of pipes. The big take-away for me was to not "shock" the system by manually allowing too much cold water to enter a hot system.

When Lee first looked at our second floor boiler, he saw the darker brown discoloration on the photo below and to the right. The dark color toward the left of the boiler is bad news--Lee said we may eventually have to replace that boiler. I have learned that boilers are naturally ugly and sludgy and generally look rather corroded (which is why they require regular cleaning/releasing of sludge). When cast iron looks that bad, though, it's not a good thing. 

We wanted to observe the boilers being cleaned (and ask a lot of questions) in order to learn as much as we could about how to treat our steam system with love and care. We're also reading a great book called We Got Steam Heat: A Homeowner's Guide to Peaceful Coexistence, a high recommendation from us if you're interested in learning about steam heat.
   

 Even if the inside of our boilers aren't so very pretty, the outside of our home is starting to feel verdant and lovely. It's been fun to see our yard come alive as we discover what flowers and plants we have waiting for us as we transition into late spring. Right now our street feels lush and dark green and beautiful. Stripping the external paint should start tomorrow so new paint can go on early next week. After the ladders and painting crew have gone away, we'll put more plants out in our front bed.

Our beautiful house in late spring.