My sister has been restoring an old cabin we own up in Canada, and was toying with the idea of ripping out the HOLY GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING GRANNY BEYOND GODAWFUL bathroom that's there now and installing a composting toilet instead. I say go for it, it can't possible be any worse than what's there now.

My grandparents up in New Hampshire have a wood stove in their kitchen/sitting room, and space heaters in the second floor bedrooms. And lots and LOTS of wool blankets. I love it up there.

pneumatic tubes. (Possibly cat-sized)

Ahahahahaha.

I should dig up the pictures I've taken of my aunt's antique "Cottage Diamond" wood stove that they use up in the Catskills. If I could inherit one thing from that house, I'd take the stove.

I suspect the cats would not be so keen on pneumatic tube transport.

Lots of people have wood burning stoves for heat in my neighborhood; on really cold days you can smell them throughout my neighborhood. There was one attached to our fireplace when we first looked at this house, but the owner took it with him. Which was fine, because the smell of burning wood really bothers my allergies.

I suspect the cats would not be so keen on pneumatic tube transport.

They have their own methods of instantaneous transportation if my mom's cat is anything to judge by.

I suspect the cats would not be so keen on pneumatic tube transport.

They don't like being stuffed into the little carriers. It always makes trips though the bank drive-through awkward.

Maybe cats' fear of vacuums has to do with some unfortunate early cat-pneumatic-tube experiments. We may have forgotten, but they haven't.

Some of those cat ... shelves (I don't know what else to call them) that wind all over the house would be sort of cool.

Both my Georgia grandfather and my Aunts in Georgia had hand operated water pumps in the kitchen sink. I wanted to use it and give it a pump and expected water to come gushing out like turning on a tap. My cousins mocked me and then showed me how you had to pump up the water.