Sue88, I used to live in the mountains. 4 years on the Yosemite border. I had the top half of a Victorian... drafty to say the least! (And at 500 square foot, it qualified as a garret.) There were holes big enough for the bats to fly in and out. It fascinated my cat who'd jump all over the place trying to catch them... while I was doing delicate pen & ink stippling. Since those were mosquito-eating bats, I'd escort them outside safely. (I'm allergic to insect bites, and anything which eats its weight in mosquitoes is worth helping.) Meanwhile, in the winter the fuel bills were higher than the rent, even though I only had a tiny inefficient wall-heater. When it died and took the landlord a couple weeks to get around to fixing, I nearly froze. The electric stove wasn't enough strong to heat the room either, but hot chicken soup in a mug (for wrapping hands around) helped, and the lipids in the chicken fats kept the health up. I miss my 27 acres with creek! However, I don't miss starving, or driving 4 hours to get a hug and game of scrabble with friends. Now winters here are not anything like New York blizzards (California really is a mild state even at moderate elevations), but I understand how hard it is to work with cold stiff fingers, and hope that Melanie's repairperson is on his way right now! Carolly