Happy November! We had a cord of wood delivered a few weeks ago and it sat in the driveway untouched until last Sunday. It took several hours and countless wheelbarrow trips. Whew! Time to fire up the wood stove!
Our house in Pennsylvania came with gas logs in the fireplace. They didn’t work very well to heat the den let alone the rest of the house. Because we had a masonry chimney, we were able to convert the gas logs into a wood stove. When I hear “wood stove”, I immediately think of a pot belly stove sticking out in the middle of the room. Luckily they are much more attractive these days!
We had a set of really nice gas logs at our last house. The manufacturer was Fireplace Extraordinaire. We were so pleased with the gas logs we knew we wanted to use the same brand for our new wood stove. We special ordered it on the internet and had a local company do the instillation. My husband replaced the mantle and the marble tiles around the opening. We were able to keep the original marble tile on the hearth. The mantle and surround take a beating each year with the soot and hot air. I see it needs a little cleaning and maybe some touch up paint!
Each year we have the chimney cleaned prior to winter. It’s really not that expensive and a necessary step for maintenance and safety. Each year we also order a cord or two of wood. We burn quite a bit so it’s nice to have some well seasoned wood from the previous year to burn first. We order our wood from a local lumber yard. They sell slabs of debarked lumber. This way the wood is much less messy and all you need to do is half or quarter the pieces and they fit perfectly in the fireplace. We store a day’s worth of wood in our antique cauldron (which you can read more about on the blog) next to the wood stove.
Ordering the wood, hauling and stacking the wood, chopping the wood, hauling it inside and building the fire. It is a LOT of work, but well worth it when we are sitting in our den and the room is toasty warm! The wood stove has a catalytic converter so it circulates warm air and blows it out. No more huddling under blankets in the den to keep warm! Lacey likes to sit on her stool next to the fire. So spoiled.
We will have a fire tonight for sure! Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!