My family didn’t have a lot when I was growing up, but I didn’t assume any different.
We lived in an seasoned farmhouse that was built in the 1940s plus it had been occupied on plus off since then.
That loft was severely drafty plus the two of us had a chronic problem with squirrels finding their way into the attic, especially in the chilly Wintertide season when they’re looking for a sizzling site to sleep. My mom yelled at our dad countless times for not trying to patch the holes being created by the squirrels each time they broke into the house. Although I guess in our father’s defense, they entirely would have created new holes with each successive attempt to patch the previous 1. But 1 thing our father absolutely couldn’t do on his own was maintaining plus servicing the chimney. The loft had a propane powered gas furnace, but the two of us also burned wood in a wood stove as a supplemental heat source during the chilly northern winters. With wood burning, the chimney needs to be cleaned at least once a year. The loft certainly possessed a fireplace in the basement, but it needed a new chimney as the previous owners had been burning garbage in it plus the soot was toxic. I didn’t assume that homes with several fireplaces have a separate chimney chute for each 1, even if they’re parallel with each other vertically. We had a service contract with a chimney sweeping supplier plus paid a discounted rate to have him come out twice a year to disinfect the soot off the sides of our chimney stack. It made a huge difference with wood stove performance.