Not the most ideal solution, but space heaters are relatively portable units for individuals.

Thank you for your comments. I hope one of my sons will be living in this house one day. They would both like to since they have helped build it since they were old enough to carry tools to their dad! My English uncle said in his country they always heated only the rooms they were using. I just wonder if one furnaces system is better at having vent systems to do this. Or how to control the vents to just go to certain rooms.

Local HVAC contractors may have good suggestions. Much of the heating/cooling advice depends on your climate and source of energy (natural gas, wood, electricity, heat pumps). It's difficult to recommend relevant websites without knowing what climate and sources of energy you have access to.

Some governments or energy providers will offer free energy audits to help you understand how to make your heating (and cooling) expenses smaller and make what you have more efficient.

There are HVAC installations that have two zones, controlled separately. They are not cheap. Bring in a couple of HVAC contractors and ask what they recommend for effective and economical heating of individual areas.

Perhaps one of your sons would be interested in buying your house now or renting it back from you while you move to a smaller place.

Susan, we have people on here from all over the world. I don't know if you're from northern Canada or down in Florida or not in North America at all. As a Canadian, I don't think I could survive a winter with a spaceheater heating one area at a time. It just wouldn't work. Perhaps if you live in a climate where the temperature never goes below freezing, you could cope that way.

You mention England, and yes they have that tendency to heat a particular area and not others. But their homes are built with individual rooms with doors everywhere that people actually use. (I'm not talking about people nowadays over there who have ripped out walls and doors and created 'open plan' living.) I have friends in England who have a door on the kitchen, then a door on the dining room, and then from the front hall, a separate door into the "lounge". They open and close these doors all the time when they pass from one room to the other. Each room has rads that they adjust to be on or off depending on whether they are spending time in the room.

I don't have any idea about how your home is constructed other than the fact that you mentioned high ceilings which can be challenging to heat. That's why I mentioned the general principle that heating single rooms successfully is dependent on your ability to close them off entirely with no air leakage.

You didn't mention that you had a furnace in the first comment so I made the assumption that you did not have a (working) furnace. Forced air systems have ductwork which brings the hot air through the house through the registers. On the registers you can slide a slider to close the louvers to shut off much of the heat. Also in your basement, if you have one, you might see a place to shut off heat to a particular "run" of ductwork, but that depends on how the heating system was set up when installed.So you do have a furnace? I took your question to mean that you were using a spaceheater only.

I didn't make my moving suggestion lightly. I've been in my home 27 years, and my mother is still in the home dad built her before they married in 1951. I have never missed a Christmas in that house! I am absolutely attached to places and it will be traumatic, I know, for me when mom is no longer in that house. I can completely understand how you are attached to this house which you shared with your late husband, and which you and your boys have been working on too. There's a lot of history and emotion tied up in this house.

However, recognizing this, you need to put your basic needs first. And shelter is one of the most basic. Maybe you're keeping the rain off, but if you can't be warm and comfortable, then is it really worth hanging onto this place for the future? Only you can answer that. I just want you to think seriously about it. Maybe it's not as dire a situation as I first imagined, thinking of you shivering inside while the winds howl and the snow swirls around the outside. That's what made me write to you and ask you to think about whether it's the best place for you to be.

This is probably beyond the scope of what the houzz discussion group was intended for, and I apologize if I've made this too personal, but I have the best intentions.

In England/Europe, water radiator heaters are the norm. Where as in many areas of N. America this is not the case. "Room-by-room" heating is normal in Europe because of the heating systems. These homes/spaces are also built with thicker exterior walls (Germans build mainly with insulated cinder blocks for walls/foundations. The interior walls are also heavily insulated and the interior doors are also solid construction OR hollow core with insulation. All of these building techniques in Europe are to accompany the room-by-room heating that is common. These systems are rare in N. America. Our buildings are not up to "code" in Europe.

Unless you have all of these "European" systems in place and functioning, room-by-room radiator heating will be less efficient than in England.

I agree with the ceramic room heaters. I grew up in a old, "handy man" farmhouse in Canada. Our only source of heat was room heaters. We did quite well, but you have to be resigned to a "cool" home if it is the only source of heating in your home.

You may want to set your furnace to a low but acceptable level and then increase the heat in the room you are using with a space heater. This will give you the closest approximation to the English system of room-by-room heating.

We just finished building our house so I'll pass along what we did. We installed a stand-alone propane fireplace in our family room (we live on an island so natural gas is not available). It heats our living room/dining room nicely. On the other end of the house, we installed ConvectAir heaters in the bedroom and sewing room. They are hard wired in to the electrical system, but could be installed after the fact by a licensed electrician. I like them better than baseboards because they do not take up the entire wall. You could also install a fireplace insert into an existing wood burning fireplace (assuming you no longer want to lug logs). Hope this helps...good luck!

Wow!
I am so amazed and overwhelmed by this support ! Cynthia, you are right on with your take on my situation. I never thought I would be so attached to this Mill Valley cottage that Michael had dreamed of turning into a "jewel box" grand Victorian. We had so many fights about the resources and time it took..year after year. The one foor furnace in the living room got most of the cottage. We all wanted to stand over it. I can't find anyone to work on it and it won't light up anymore. The old guy helping me says PG&E will condemn it if I have them come.
This week the roof goes on and the windows go in! Living in the California Bay area we don't get snow. We do have a cold winter at times. We have had weather in the 30's and 40's and my house is shaded by some big trees. I asked for a solar assessment and the said to ask again when one of the big trees is removed. One tree in particular blocks the west face and it will be taken down sometime but it is my neighbors yard and will be an expensive job!
I like the idea of all the doors and maybe I will put in two furnaces. The new upstairs with the amazing master bedroom would be a great area to rent out or offter as a B&B to travelers. I don't like
to think about moving for 10 years or so. My son's are in their early20's so not quite ready to take over.
I love the warm floor concept but the oak floors were what we had thought looked most Victorian.
We are spending time to continue the 6 color trimmed out exterior and I have have several special
windows made to put tsome of the stained glass windows in front of. Mike would just use the window but the code forced me to but in the insulated windows which I am sure I will appreciate in terms of warmth even though the upfront cost is high.
Thank-you again and I still hope for more furnace/heating specifics. If any one knows of small effecient brands I still like thinking of three zones for heating depending on the living situation of the house over the years. It is going to be amazing......

If you have a gas floor furnace that no longer works, I suggest you call PG&E to send someone out. One of the gas pipes may be clogged with a spider web. Simple fix for them to clean it out. Even if they declare it unusable, you will not be any worse off than you are now, and at least you will know what the problem is.

The good news is that the new gas furnaces are vastly more efficient and cheaper to run than those of yesteryear. But if you have an old floor furnace, you and the contractors will need to think about how to install ductwork to the upstairs if you put in a forced air system with modern furnace. Or you might think about a radiator system instead. Check out the options.

Good for you for investing in new windows. They will help a lot. The old construction in the San Francisco Bay area was not very energy efficient, shall we say. Many Bay area houses are amazingly drafty. The recent cold snap and winds made a lot of people really cold in their old houses.

Here's a brief look at my project. We still have to trim out the front gables. The second sto

Love your house.

Zone heating is very efficient, and I have a fireplace bias, so I'd suggest something that you can enjoy visually as well. Some gas fireplaces, inserts and freestanding units are designed for very small spaces.

Having grown up in an older house the Bay Area, I understand crowding over the vent of the furnace during the few times of year we really needed it. It's not practical to live that way. :-)

If you need some help with specific recommendations, I've still got a few friends back by the Bay that can be trusted to not give you the runaround.

Wow. What a big, beautiful house you are building. I agree with the above suggestions to have the existing furnace inspected, and also consider a newer, more efficient system.

In the meantime, you might consider an electric convection heater that hangs on the wall. They are about an inch thick and can be about 24x28 inches in surface area. They can be painted to match the wall color, or painted like an art canvas. You will not get burned if you touch it. They can be moved to wherever you are. I know that it certainly worked well on the wall next to the pediatric exam table.

A convection heater similar to what I described in the above post is available at Lowe's.

ECO-heater Convection Flat Panel Electric Space Heater. Less than 26 inches square. $88.00.