The first time, the furnace was an ancient beast probably about 60 years old and came with the home. 

As far as how to prepare for world emergencies lasting for years, if we look to history we can see examples like Joseph in Egypt and try to learn from them, they stockpiled 7 years of grain and sold it to the people.

That's ancient history now. 

Just real quick, Cuba, Egypt, FR Polynesia, Russia, China, Singapore, Viet Nam and Italy.

Since then, I have picked up other books and the following have been inspirational for various reasons.Richest Man in Babylon by George Clayson - The principles of money that applied in the ancient world of Babylon still apply today.

I've seen lots of small families with their garden, cow, chickens etc in Mexico, Soviet states, China, Cambodia, and most recently Egypt.

We just purchased a rental property this last summer with an ancient HVAC system.

The soffits are rotten with large holes in them, there's an addition on the back that was never completed and basically looks like ancient ruins.

As I said before too, I'd REALLY REALLY emphasize that you and if you have any partners, that you check with the city of MKE as far as the work you mention this place needs and try to nail them down as to what they're going to require as far as fixing whatever in the place because one example I can give you is one home I'm soon to put on the market where it came (as an REO) with a 4 fuse fuse box and the ancient knob and tube wiring inside and while these days you really can't get ins coverage on anything with fuses, so they've been updated to breakers, you do still have a lot of knob and tube wiring around here as we have a fair amount of housing stock that's very old. 

This is an ancient thread, but I'm seeing the exact opposite.Last market sale date 1901-1997 ~98KLast market recording date 1901-1997 ~27KIt makes me mistrust the data in general.