Weekend Chores

We finally started on the mega-project that is cleaning up and organizing the shop. Between our moving into the house, friends storing their stuff, the pottery studio, and the general craziness getting everything ready for the wedding, things've been piling up willy-nilly in there for a couple of years, and you can see the result: It's a big space with plenty of room for everything we've got in there, but we needed to organize to a higher degree beyond "heap on the floor" so that there'll actually be room to move around and work on projects. We didn't finish cleaning it up this weekend, but we made a great deal of progress. One more solid saturday and we might even be able to park inside!

In addition to working on the shop, we also cleaned the chimney in preparation for winter. Last year we burned a lot of green wood, so it seemed like a good idea to scrape out the creosote before we started firing the stove. Brushing out the stovepipe turned out to be the easy part of the job, Cary had no trouble getting up on the roof with the chimney brush and working it down the pipe. Vaccuming out the creosote flakes from the bottom turned out to be really complicated, because there are all kinds of crazy baffles between the firebox and the stovepipe. They make the stove burn nice and clean and efficient, but they sure do hamper efforts to get the shop vac nozzle where it needs to go! Eventually after much cursing I managed to get the baffles out, and then with Cary's help was even able to get them back in afterwards.

The cats had a productive weekend too, as you can see: Iggy and Sprout really enjoy the picnic table. Sanford prefers to lounge ontop of our cars. Marcel prefers to stay low to the ground, although he actually climbed up onto the observation platform - without any human help - for the first time this weekend, which is quite a milestone.

Fire & Cats (Hi Andy!)

We are really, really enjoying the Jotul wood stove. That goes for both the humans and the felines in our houshold (Sr. Tortuga, Pinchi, and the fish declined to comment). The only problem is that sometimes we make the house TOO warm and we all fall asleep right after dinner. Sanford demonstrates:

In all seriousness though, I am really impressed at how nicely this stove burns. I grew up in a house with 3 wood stoves of varying antiquity and efficiency, and I've since lived in houses with an assortment of woodburning stoves and fireplaces, so I feel confident saying that I am well versed in the art of fire building. This stove is, hands down, the easiest stove to get a fire started in that I have ever used. Even with wet wood, or just crummy wood (not all species of tree make good firewood), and not much in the way of kindling or paper, it usually only takes one try to get the fire started. And once the fire is going, it will burn cleanly until all the wood is gone. The damper control is terrific, and the firebox is sized just perfectly so we can stuff it full of wood before bed, damper it down, and it will burn all night.
Besides its functionality, this is a beautiful stove (even with ashes and woody bits all over in front of it). The glass in the door stays clean as long as we are burning dry wood, thanks to something the brochure refers to as the "air-wash system". Sometimes wet wood does leave creosote on the glass but it always burns off in the next fire. There is nothing more entrancing than watching the flickering flames in the fireplace and listening to the wood crackle and pop... feeling very warm and sleepy...
This stove makes the house warm, in so many ways beyond just heat. On Jotul's website they have a list of 6 different kinds of warmth that a wood stove produces. These people are clearly obsessed with wood stoves and it really shows. I think we made the right choice!

House in the Mist

We've been having beautiful clear & cold weather for the last week, with lovely mists and hard frosts. This morning I grabbed the camera and snapped a couple of pictures before I left for work. Here's the house all quiet and frosty just before sunrise:
I had to hold my breath so that it wouldn't obscure the house in the picture.

Here's the view to the east, with the mist rising off the frosty fields. As usual with this sort of picture, it was at least 80% more beautiful in real life.

This is where the sun actually comes up this time of year, south-southeast over the swamp. About an hour after I took this picture the sun would have come streaming over the ridge and illuminated the frost coating the swamp brush, making everything look like it is coated in diamonds for a few minutes before it melts away. I only get to see that on the weekends though... [sigh]
The firewood, incidentally, was a housewarming gift extraordinare from Ross and Keron. THANKS GUYS! Ross delivered it Friday night, just before the party. It sure is a lot nicer to burn than the wood we've been scavanging from fallen snags around the property. We've been keeping the fire going through this cold snap and I must say that the Jotul stove sure puts out the heat. We can load it up with wood and damper it down before bedtime, and it keeps the whole house warm all night and there's still enough embers left in the morning to get it going again by simply adding another log. The cats may even love the fire more than they love the radiant heat!

All Wrapped Up...

The whole downstairs of the house is masked off and ready for the trim to be painted (scheduled to happen this morning). All the masking makes the house feel even more like a giant Christmas present. And a particularly awkward to wrap one, at that. :)

Here's Cary checking out the masking in the Office. You can also see where they primered the cut edges of the trim boards. It's also all been spackled and caulked. Quality all the way!
The Jotul wood stove was installed yesterday. I carefully unmasked it so that we could take a peek:
Here's a close up view of the front of the stove. This particular model, the "Castine" is described in the Jotul catalogue as having a "nautical" theme. I was a little worried when I read that - after we had ordered it of course - because I thought maybe I had overlooked some big anchor and rope design when I visited the showroom. But nope, this is the stove I wanted. There is a little tiny boat (about 1" square) on the side pannel, so I guess that's it. It's a good thing I didn't choose this one because I had my heart set on a nautically-themed stove - I'd be pretty disappointed! Somebody should let their catalogue blurb-writer know not to beleive the design department's hype.
I would describe it more as a classic stove design. Pretty, isn't it? I can't wait to see it with a fire inside.

Starting the Hearth

Yesterday Steve finished laying the slate in the entryway and started working on the hearth! Here's the hardybacker that the slate tiles will attach to, attached to the walls.

Here's a close up of the air space between the sheetrock and the hardybacker, showing the 1/2" copper pipe spacers. It's a pretty clever system. He uses long screws, slides the pipe over them, and tightens it all down to the wall. It's very sturdy. There's an air gap at the bottom and the top will be left open, which will create a convective air current. It'll simultaneously keep the sheetrock from getting hot and act as a heat exchanger to warm the air in the room.

The brazilian black slate tiles will be attached to the hardybacker, and also will wrap around the sides so the air gap doesn't show.

I better think about getting some firewood!