If it is like the old Ariens I have, the answer is not easily. The main shaft drives the auger and the auxillary shaft is responsible for the drive wheels. I am sure it would be possible to weld, grind, modify and re-pulley so a single shaft engine could be used, but not easily. I watched ebay for almost two years to find a replacement for my 5 hp Ariens. I like the short block solution. Good luck! Chuck

Thanks so much for the quick reply, zep. I didn't realize that that toolbar was in my Add-ons list. I disabled it there, and when I restarted Firefox, the toolbar was gone. Thanks again. Dee

We purchased a 1989 Cape that had been untouched since building. The layout and number of closets are fantastic! The adundance of draperies, mismatched floors, and the kitchen were AWFUL. Draperies were easy to lose, floors are slowly getting done, and the kitchen - well, it will take years to save for a full reno, but a coat of paint is a miracle worker! 1) Do you have any regrets Absolutely not! It made the space so much brighter and cleaner. 2) What did you paint - crown molding, kitchen cabinets, baseboards, door frames, doors only? Base cabs, upper cabs, beadboad on the back of the peninsula, beadboard wainscoting around the room, door frames, and a closet door. 3) What color or kind of paint did you use? Benjamin Moore Advance in White Heron. I discovered I adore the Advance paint. It self-levels, filling in pores and grain lines. It's not as workable as oil, but it's very different than acrylic wall paint! 4) What would you have done differently I thought I'd save some time and mess by NOT sanding the frames between coats. I did sand the doors. You CAN see a difference, but only when you open a door. The sanded door fronts are very smooth - the grain nearly disappeared. 5) Where did you start? i.e. finish a specific room and then move on, baseboards, crown molding, doors The kitchen was the focus, but now, we have some "spare" cabinets that were relocated to the laundry room. I plan to paint them aqua. I can't wait to buy more Advance! 6) What made the biggest impact Color. The original kitchen is fairly large - about 13x20, with half as the working kitchen and half as a seating area. The original counter is a rich blue-green Corian - and there's a lot of it! The original floors are unsealed whitish tile with white grout. The golden cabinets became white and I painted the room to match the counters (for now). From green and orange and beige and dirty gray floors, to crisp green and white - such a transformation. 7) How long did you devote to the project About 3 weeks, working 4-5 hours over 3-5 days a week. I had to clean everything with TSP, then sand everything (someone re-poly'ed the cabs to shiny them up for sale - ugh!). Two coats primer, two coats paint, touchups, sanding between each coat. Not to mention, I also painted the interiors of the uppers, as I still plan to buy glass front doors for those. 8) Any other comments you think are relevant I refinish furniture as a hobby - I love to see wood grain and bring an old piece back to it's original beauty. But I've become a white kitchen convert. It's SO EASY to keep it clean! The cure time is a full month, but 2 years have passed, and it still looks perfect.

Since 2015, all direct vent fireplaces sold in the USA are equipped with a safety barrier of some sort to prevent the exact thing you have described. Having said that, the non-combustible surround of marble, granite, or other material can still get very hot and may cause injury. You are in the the minority of folks that think their fireplace provides too much heat, but there are quite a few of you out there. There are a couple ways around that. Some fireplaces, particularly those designed for big commercial applications, are very safe and produce very little heat. Check these out: Davinci The other option is to go with an electric fireplace. Some are very realistic: Dimplex Opti-V There may have been enough technological improvement in regular gas fireplace that you will be happy with a basic, low BTU (heat) gas model, but you have some options.