Sunday, October 4, 2015

Day Four: A New Kind of Heat

This project has been a long time in the making and has been DH's baby for the past two and a half years. In the winter of 2012, we lost our power, including our heat (we are on an electric heat pump), for five days. It was rather chilly and, by day five, there was no longer any novelty in living in an 11 degree C house. We had it better than some though as our toilets continued to flush and the hot water tank had lots of toasty hot water days after the power went off.

Once the power returned, DH and I had a serious discussion about two things: a generator or a wood stove. Both of us loved the idea of a stove that would offer ambient heat and enjoyment throughout the year and which could also be called into action should (when) we lose power again. Neither of us wanted to invest a lot of money into a generator that I would have to learn to use during DH's travels (and you all know how I do with that kind of thing) and only every few years. The main problem was the cost of either but the wood stove won the bet and we began planning.

It took many months of discussion to decide upon where to put a stove in our open plan living/dining/kitchen. Should it go along the wall as a fireplace? Should it stand in the middle of the room? Neither of us liked the idea of a black pipe running up through the room so we discussed creating a decorative wall that would go behind a free standing wood stove. Then we decided a rock wall would be nice and also settled on a Scandinavian styled Morso stove that would allow lots of heat and enough room on top to allow us to boil water or use a frying pan.

This is the biggest completed project in our house to date that we have done ourselves and was not without its challenges. We started in 2013.

Our rock 'wall' became a centre column large
enough to  house the pipe through the ceiling and the boys
briefly before the facing went on.
DH did a wonderful job on the rock wall column we designed. However, he wasn't happy with the way the corners fit together and, a year later, took all of the rock back off, fixed the dimensions of the column and refaced it.


The interior of the column is constructed using 2X4 and concrete board before being faced by cultured stone. 



The original design for the hearth included left over slate tile from the roof of our home in Germany. 


However, we had originally decided to edge the hearth with the same type of stone on our kitchen island and the $700 price tag forced us to another solution.



The slate looked gorgeous and both DH and I loved the sentimental nature of it but we really needed a less expensive solution. When I did the Interior Design program in Ottawa, I because fascinated with some of the gorgeous applications of using concrete in residential interiors and had purchased several books on the topic. DH took those to heart, started studying and began to design his own polished concrete hearth. He did a beautiful job.



We chose the rock facing based on the colourations of rocks local to our area. This means that the wall reflects the exterior of our property so fits right into the house like it was intended to be there.



I won't say that the facing was easy to put on but it wasn't the most frustrating part of this project. I think that was the period between when DH finished the tiled hearth and when he started taking the wall and hearth apart to fix the dimensions. That was about a year long wait.

Taking the hearth apart. Eldest was quite upset about the change so DH
made sure to involve all of them in the process. That seemed to help. 

It was a long road but eventually has turned out beautifully. DH is pleased with the re-jigged column and we all love the new stove.

Bringing the hearth up from the garage. That's one
heavy piece of concrete!


A new hearth!
Over the summer, DH took a week off and fixed the column.



It looks awesome! And a year later, the stove installers came back to install our new stove. We needed professional installers to do that to be covered by our house insurance.


First lighting. 
Ready.

Having a fire in at night is still a novelty and we are enjoying every minute of it.



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6 comments:

  1. Absolutely gorgeous. You are so blessed to have a "handy man" for a husband. .. I think his educational background might have something to do with it. ...but it looks awesome. Hopefully I will be able to snuggle in one of those chairs and enjoy the heat some day.

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  2. Absolutely gorgeous. You are so blessed to have a "handy man" for a husband. .. I think his educational background might have something to do with it. ...but it looks awesome. Hopefully I will be able to snuggle in one of those chairs and enjoy the heat some day.

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  3. Patty what a beautiful Job DH did. It looks fantastic from the pictures and I am sure that you will all enjoy the wood stove warmth during the colder winter days. Beautiful job with the blog as well. As always you are an inspiration!

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    Replies
    1. You are too sweet, Karen. We are loving the wood fire I must say. You're writing I find far more inspiring. I only write about toilet paper and teething;)!

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  4. Patty what a beautiful Job DH did. It looks fantastic from the pictures and I am sure that you will all enjoy the wood stove warmth during the colder winter days. Beautiful job with the blog as well. As always you are an inspiration!

    ReplyDelete