Furlow House Amenities
OUTSIDE
Parking
Onstreet parking within a few feet of the Furlow House property is usually available on
Fourth Avenue. This is the most convenient parking for loading and unloading , too, unless
you are planning to store sporting items in the garage. If so, you should arrange for the
caretaker to meet you at the garage with the necessary keys. Entrance to the garage is gained
from the alley between Fourth and Third Avenues.
Gardens
Furlow House has professionally maintained lawns and gardens. While the property is not
large -- a standard Durango urban lot from the late 19th Century -- it is planted with a large
variety of trees, flowers and shrubs (including Aspens on the north side of the house). We
have found quite a few kinds of mushrooms around the gardens, too. A garden layout is a
part of this web site. The caretaker can identify many of the species for you if you can't
yourself.
Smoker/barbecue
There is a large smoker/barbecue in the back yard. If you don't have experience in using this
kind of barbecue, ask the caretaker. It can be set up for direct heating, such as for cooking
steaks or hamburgers, or indirect smoking of beef briskets, turkey, salmon, etc. Both require
large amounts of charcoal. Smoking takes a great deal of time--count on six hours and you
will not be too surprised.
INSIDE
Floor plan
A floor plan of Furlow House is a part of this web site. This section discusses the amenities
of the house, room-by-room.
Heating/Hot water
In the basement of Furlow House we have a high-efficiency, environmentally-friendly boiler
system which is said to provide 90 gallons of hot water in the first hour of use, and 70 in
each following hour, while keeping the house comfortably warm. We ask that you do not go
into the basement to see this beauty, however.
Front Porch
The front porch of Furlow House is the smoker's lounge. It is also the "mud room" of the
house, where you can store sporting items and shoes or boots which are not in fact muddy.
(Muddy items go in the garage.)
Living/Dining Area
The contiguous living and dining area has seating for a dozen people or more, if needed.
The dining area can seat eight diners reliably, and more in a pinch.
Audio-Visual
In the living room we have a nice, new, digital flat-screened t.v., hooked up to a
satellite dish, which provides something more than 50 channels. There's a vcr
for your use, too, which isn't hard to pull up from the remote controls.
There is also a restored, 1960-vintage vacuum tube receiver, presently a
Fisher 500, which accepts inputs from a DVD payer that also plays CDs, and
SACDs, and of course has a built-in tuner. There are a few good FM stations in
Durango, on the low end of the dial. The speakers are Electrovoice Compact
Monitors, vintage 1958, fully restored, and possibly much improved. Finally,
we have a Nottingham Analog Spacedek turntable and tonearm, and a Vanden Hull
cartridge -- state of the art analog equipment. And lots of good lps, spanning
several decades of music, to play on it.
With all of this potential for
pleasure comes some responsibility. The phono cartridge costs about $700 for
stylus replacement, for instance. (We know because we lost one to a party
already.) So we keep the DVD player, receiver, and turntable in a locked
cabinet. We'll give you the key to the cabinet if you agree to be responsible
for any costs of repair or replacement occasioned by your use. (Inspection of
the cabinet contents is something we do before and after each visit.)
Kitchen
We have just about all the pots and pans you might need for just about any preparation you
may wish to make, along with utensils both common and obscure (e.g. four kinds of nut
crackers and a cherry pitter). Please help us keep the non-stick coatings on the cookware that
now has it! We have knives which we try hard to keep sharp and ask that you do the same.
There are dishes and flatware for at least a dozen people, and probably twice that.
With respect to appliances, Furlow House has a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a gas stove, a
microwave, a toaster, and a blender. We have recently installed a very fancy dual-fuel downdraft
Jenn-Aire stove with electric convection oven. We have a garbage disposal but try not to test
the limits of its abilities. There's a blender and we might break down and get a food processor,
but draw the line at electric knives. (The last owner left an electric can opener for us, however.)
Please clean up after yourself in the kitchen.
Office/computer
Furlow House has a fax machine and a computer, the latter of which is not for the use of
guests. The fax machine can be used by guests under the supervision of the caretaker. Please
see the House Rules regarding, fax and telephone use.
The fax line is a shared line with the computer modem. This line is also present in both of
the queen bedrooms, where you may plug in your portable computers.
Bedrooms
On the second floor of Furlow House there are four bedrooms, which are described further
in the House Tour page. Each bedroom has ample closet space in the bedroom, and each has
a dresser.
Bathrooms
Both bathrooms in Furlow House have bathtubs with shower heads in them.
We've recently renovated the second-floor bathroom, spending a record amount of
money on the square footage involved. For our efforts we now have in-floor
electric heat, augmented by forced-air ceiling heat and ventilation, a whirlpool
bath, antique tiles, marble walls, bead-board wainscoting, and a charming
antique medicine cabinet with a triple-beveled mirror.
In addition to
towels, Furlow House supplies soap, shampoo, toilet and facial tissue. If you require special
soaps or shampoos, please bring them!
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