Yield it not. The Quinagok Anderson Charlieskin be here soon Denali-ve us Wasilla be knighted: Surrey-house. At least, I think she'd do it. Alaska.
ETA: The Altrol man came over yesterday, and spent at least an hour and a half here. He listened (!) to what I had to say, and we explored the remains of the existing heating system pretty thoroughly, and looked over the water system. Determined that instead of the water lines for the kitchen following the outside wall, they were in fact coming through the ceiling joists and were in the inner of the double wall construction. He intuited that the rest of the system was done well (set up to be drained in the event of a winter vacation, all other plumbing on interior walls) and it was unlikely that the builder took a different tack and put the plumbing at risk. So even though my kitchen floor was getting cold, my pipes were not as much at risk as I feared.
We looked over all the options for an inside placement for the water heater (all of which were on the north wall, and thus below grade). He finally asked, "What is it that you think you'd gain by going with an inside placement?" and I told him my thinking on that. (Greater efficiency, no need to feed the utilidor with expensive glycol). Walked out to the garage, looked at the setup out there, and he recommended keeping it out there. Also said that the folks he saw going over to a water heater system were usually replacing them in five or six years. Thought that perhaps a few thousand could be shaved off the boiler estimate, but it was in the ballpark, and recommended going with a boiler over a water heater.
Given that, he felt that the best option, considering the price of oil/propane and that I've already got an oil tank, and that there are servicing options for it in town, a Toyo direct vent oil heater would give me all the supplemental heat I need. I discussed the pros and cons of a used unit, and he leaned towards new unless I could get one that had been serviced annually, and had the records to show it. He said that these had about a six or seven year life expectancy (especially since people tended not to get them serviced regularly) and buying used just shortens that. The wood stove takes me most of the way there, and the Toyo can fill in the edges. He looked over the proposed placement spot, and thought that would work fine. He said, "You won't be hurting the house by waiting to replace the boiler." Floor gets too cold in the kitchen, I can put down a rug.
Six or seven years will see my daughter out of college and working, and my son through h.s. and into or even out of college--a good time then to figure out my next step, and to have the financial wherewithal to do that.
And peace is restored to the kingdom. I have a plan. Unless a financial windfall drops out of the sky in the near future (high pressure system is holding, clear skies as far as I can see, forecast for windfalls: highly unlikely), a Toyo will do the job for me for about $2500, around 10K less than I would otherwise have to come up with. And should the opportunity for a boiler come along, and should I feel the need to install one, I can still have the Toyo available as a `backup backup'. Feeling.much.better.
A profound thank you to my h.c compadres for walking through this with me, sharing your ideas, offering support. It was hard to panic and laugh at puns at the same time, Ehouse, so thank you especially for that. Now that my son understands that the heat for the house is coming out of the big box in the middle of the room, he has stated that he would be willing to keep the house warm with fires while I'm gone. If I get the Toyo in before my trip, I will point out to him that this is also a heat source.
