The roof was replaced 4 years ago and the septic system last fall. The windows are all older double hung; they worked great after we opened them up from being painted shut. The previous owners said they never had the windows open but always had the ac or heat running.

Speaking of the heat or ac running, we had the duct work professionally cleaned yesterday. What a mess! About 2" of grime around all of the ducts. Well worth the money spent to know we'll be breathing clean air. There are options to spray in a sanitizing chemical, but we chose not to do that. My parents came to help clean the wkd we moved in, and my mother's cleaning of all of the registers brought their disgusting state to our attention. If you live in a home where this has never been done, even if it's a new home, we highly recommend it.

We are going to start saving for a new heating system. We're thinking of going with an outside wood burning stove. Any thoughts or experiences with this? Also will be putting in a new, higher efficiency ac unit within the next year. Any suggestions?

Another item to check off our list is the installation of a water softener today. Since we moved in, we haven't been able to get our shampoo to lather and our dishes come out of the dishwasher with a cloudy, spotty appearance. In addition, our clothes still have a lingering unclean odor after coming out of our nearly new high efficiency wash machine. We had a water softener installed in our previous house and it made a world of difference. Hoping for the same here.

This weekend's projects include painting some ceilings (a great spot for odor to cling) and adding some shelves to the toy room closet.