Only in Minnesota do we include photos of the new furnace when we list a home for sale.  The weather has been wonderful these past few days but we know we are living on borrowed time and today is the first day of winter. 

I wrote this post in 2008 and it continues to get traffic during the colder months when Minnesotans have to deal with the cold and the beast in the basement.  

Like a trip back in time.  I found these furnaces in some of the homes for sale.  I encounter a few  each year, usually in the older neighborhoods near downtown St. Paul. 

Some people call them octopus furnaces because of the way the heat ducts take up the whole basement.  They are called gravity furnaces. The unit in the first picture burns heating oil. Most of the gravity furnaces were converted to burn natural gas when the prices of heating oil went through the roof in the mid 70's. For those who are too young to rememebr the oil tank was in the basement and a truck came by on a regular basis and filled the tank.  In the 70's there were price increases and a shortage. The trucks stopped coming on a regular basis and it got cold.  

The gravity furnace is like a forced air furnace except with out the force.  The air is heated, the hot air rises up through the duct work. These furnaces last forever but are often replaced because they are not energy efficient as forced air funaces and they take up a lot of real estate in the basement.   The large asbestos wrapped duct work makes home owners a bit nervous.   Handling and removing the asbestos is best left to a professional and cost a couple thousand dollars.

The pictures were taken with my phone and I have quite a collection but these are my favorites.  The furnace in the middle was particularly frightening.

If you live in the city of St. Paul and need a new furnace we still have the city fix up fund. There are income restrictions .

481 Laurel ave. St. Paul MN

More condos on Laurel.  Yesterday I wrote about Riley Row, a beautiful historic row house on Laurel Avenue where the famous writer F. Scott Fitzgerald lived for a year.  The Fitzgerald's moved around a bit but F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in this building in 1896.  The Fitzgerald's lived at 481 for two years. The building is now called the F. Scott Fitzgerald condominiums but it used to be the San Mateo Flats, which were originally luxury apartments.   There are apartments that were converted into condos all over the Summit Hill and Crocus Hill neighborhoods. They are the nicest historic Condos in the city.  

The condos are nice. They have fireplaces, exposed brick walls, built-ins and are about 1450 square feet each with two bedrooms and those wonderful balconies.  There are rarely any units for sale in the building.

There is a plaque on the building you can see it in the picture to the left of the steps.  The building is designated as a literacy landmark by friends of the Library USA. 

There is also the F. Scott Fitzgerald Row house at 599 Summit Avenue. 

599 Summit Avenue - F. Scott Fiztgerald Row House

Laurel Avenue - Queen Anne

This is part of the 400 block of Laurel Avenue East of Dale street. There are many fine old Victorian era homes and many of them are in the Queen Anne style.  Laurel street was named in the 1870's after the Laurel tree . . but they don't grow in St. Paul, not even on Laurel Avenue.  

 
ice dam

If you have not had water leaking into your home yet this winter consider yourself lucky.  Many of us have been plagued by ice dams and roof leaks. They are worse than ever this year because of the heavy snow we got in December that never melted, and is mostly still sitting on the roof.   We started taking on water on Christmas day and have been having problems ever since.  We have lived in the same house for many years and have never had problems with a leaky roof.   

Last week we had an ice dam and some snow removed from one of the roofs.  It stopped the water from coming in but not before a window and a ceiling were damaged. 

The dams are caused by melting snow on the roof and heat leaking out from the house.   The water pools on the roof because the ice dam prevents it from rolling off the roof . . hence the term 'dam'.  It does not matter how new your roof is you can still take on water.

Having ice dams removed costs between $300 and $500 dollars an hour.  Companies that offer ice dam removal are very busy and some are hiring additional help.  

The safest way to have them removed is by using steam.  There don't seem to be any snow rakes left in the Twin Cites. If there were I would also recommend using one to remove snow from the roof to prevent ice dams from forming.  It isn't just snow on the roof that causes ice dams.  The University of Minnesota Extension web site has some great information about what causes ice dams and how to prevent them. 

A neighbors house caught on fire yesterday. We don't no what the cause was.  The neighbor wasn't home and this is the second home he has owned that has had a fire in the last seven years.  The other house is just a block away.  It has new owners and is still undergoing restoration. It was sad to see the wonderful old house with smoke pouring out the windows. The Saint Paul firefighters are nothing short of amazing. It was a reminder to us all that even on holiday weekends they are looking out for us and ready to save our homes and our lives.

Homes like these can not be replaced and they burn rather quickly.  We all feel the owners loss. 

Horse carriage and driver waiting in front of the Alexander Ramsey house in St. Paul, MN.  On Saturdays they have tours so that people can experience what Christmas was like in 1875. It must have been hard back then. People had to shop in stores instead of on the internet and the Christmas trees were lit with candles instead of lights.

by G. Sax, (Twitter: @gsax)

In 2001, Jonathan Franzen wrote what I now safely consider my second-favorite work of fiction, The Corrections (The Great Gatsby still claims the top spot). It was an astounding book made more provocative to me because of his discomfort with being chosen for Oprah Winfrey's book club. Franzen is now a regular contributor to The New Yorker.

Last week, I received a call from a fact-checker at The New Yorker who asked me a series of questions about historical housing prices in the Twin Cities in general and pointed questions about the Ramsey Hill neighborhood of St. Paul. I was able to field her questions with verifying answers for a new work of fiction available in The New Yorker this week, "Good Neighbors" by Jonathan Franzen.

It is described as a short story about animosities and relationships among families living on a gentrifying street in St. Paul, Minnesota. The street name is Barrier Street. I told her there was no such street that I could find, but I understand that some things are better left as fiction. Like "555" phone numbers.

The story begins, "Walter and Patty Berglund were the young pioneers of Ramsey Hill—the first college grads to buy a house on Barrier Street since the old heart of St. Paul had fallen on hard times three decades earlier. The Berglunds paid nothing for their Victorian and then killed themselves for ten years renovating it."

Anyone interested in St. Paul, particularly St. Paul real estate, should be hooked by that opener. Other notable local area references include Linwood Park, St. Catherine's, 3M, Garrison Keillor, Kirby Puckett and Prince. All this from a guy who hails from St. Louis.

Franzen did his research. He knew that Ramsey Hill was a trouble spot in the 1980s and that its revival has strengthened since. The Ramsey Hill neighborhood is noted for its Victorian architecture. The Ramsey Hill Association claims that it is the "second-largest contiguous Victorian District in North America." It's a lofty claim, and maybe the word "district" is the key to its boldness. Quick research shows that several cities boast large Victorian neighborhoods.

Toronto lays claim to the largest and best-preserved set of Victorians, specifically in the Cabbagetown neighborhood. The Fan neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, is pretty darn Victorian. The Old West End of Toledo, Ohio, has a stake in Victorian lore. Boston's South End is officially the oldest Victorian neighborhood in the U.S. And Old Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, touts itself as the largest Victorian neighborhood in the country.

You can get a look inside some of the homes of St. Paul's Victorians at the 2009 biannual Ramsey Hill House Tour on Sunday, September 13. That's a ways off from this writing, so read the Franzen short story for now and mark your calendar to see the realities of the fictitious Walter and Patty Berglund.