When I was young my parents had an antique kerosene heater as a decoration piece in our family room for as long as I can remember.  I think they picked it up at a yard sale or antique sale, spray painted it black and had it sitting along the fireplace.  
When I was starting to think about decor for the new house I remembered that heater and told Guy I was going to start looking for one and then kinda dropped it into the brain bucket of things to look for.

Speed up to a few months later, we stopped by my Brother In-laws house as they were having a yard sale and we thought we would just say hello. After chatting for a while, in the corner of my eye I saw it, a old beat up kerosene heater.  I asked Guy to ask what they were going to do with it and they were going to donate it as no one had bought it.  I immediately said "how much? I want it".  Next thing I know my brother in-law is putting it into the car and says no charge, its a family heirloom!  I really didn't know what he meant so asked him more about it. He told me how it had been their grandparents heater, Guy and his, and how he could remember that they would use it every winter to heat their bathroom in their old one bedroom house.  Guy's eye lit up and you could tell he remembered it as well.

As you can imagine, I was honored to have something that was really a family item and not something we found in a thrift shop.  It means so much more.

I've taken the heater home, scrubbed it painted it and it now sits in our family room, although we don't use it to heat the house, we could as it has all the parts including the original wicks but I chose to instead imagine the warmth it provided to family so long ago.

Here it is when we brought it home:

                 After some cleaning up:

and now painted and in the new house.

 I need to find a permanent place in the house for it but so for now it sits in a corner until I can create a display of sorts with it)