12 Cedar Street was a small house with three rooms downstairs and the same number of rooms upstairs. One entered the fairly large kitchen downstairs directly from the outdoors via a rear door. In the early years, coal fired the black iron stove the kitchen. Later, range oil was the fuel of choice and then even later, natural gas was used. A coal furnace in the cellar provided some minimal heat to the rest of the house by means of steam radiators. Family members usually gathered around the stove to keep warm.