Wife and I are brainstorming a new ranch style home just so we can avoid all this stair climbing due to age and health related issues. We currently live in a 3-story brick&mortar attached townhouse which has been very good to us during the 40+ years we've lived in it. Currently gas steam Burnham Independence boiler roughly 13 year's new. Current friends and family have mixture of both frame or brick heated by oil and/or electricity. If we stay in the city there are now no more permits issued for natural gas construction. I dislike fuel oil having had use of them before we upgraded from oil to gas when both the buried oil line and tank started leaking hence the gas conversion some 13 years ago. Not too thrilled with the thought of paying $6+ for each gallon of fuel oil which friends state are brutal on their budget. If we stay in the city all new construction requires we go with electric heat which to me is absurd. As we age common sense states we want and need warmer homes however there is a time when "needs versus wants" rule. Should we stay in the city we love or just pack up and consider moving this time to a newly constructed ranch and put ourselves at the mercy of whatever heating system comes with a newly constructed ranch? We get a opportunity to do this right and I pose this question to Terry Love's readership what they would do? I am not adverse to going back to oil as you do get more heat output per gallon of oil versus therm of natural gas but I hate the smell and maintenance each year changing out the nozzle/oil filter/and the dreaded vacuuming of the soot buildup which I use to do as a normal homeowner. Thoughts anyone?