The DU Lounge
In reply to the discussion: What's the strangest thing you ever saw in someone's house? [View all]hunter
(39,191 posts)This house had a small kitchen, evidently too small for the large stove some owner had wanted so they put the stove in the dining room. We'd seen refrigerators in dining rooms but not full-size ranges. A refrigerator occupied the space where the home's original small stove had been.
The real estate agent offered to show us the basement but we peeked down the creaky stairs into the darkness and declined. I could see it had an old "octopus furnace" and the octopus arms were asbestos.
The house we eventually bought had an octopus furnace too. This had originally burned coal, then it had been converted to burn oil, and by the time we bought it, had been converted to burn gas. More importantly its octopus arms were not asbestos.
https://www.oldhouseguy.com/heating-old-octopus-furnace/