Good day today!!! I found out that my new (new to me, it is a three-year-old stove with very high marks for efficiency that we are getting for half the price it would be new) freestanding woodstove will arrive tomorrow. It is not getting installed tomorrow, but it will land in my livingroom since the guy who is installing it will be picking up another one from the same place and will have the trailer and the help and has to drive right by our house. So he will drop it off. One step closer to being WARM!
I'm also excited by the prospect of several pots bubbling on the larger surface of the top of this stove. I will lose significant livingroom space, but that is a good trade-off. Being warm and double-tasking the stove....sea salt, lard and suet rendering, soups, pumpkins and squash for the critters....something working on that stove almost every day, I hope!
I got some tile and my dad busted up the old, narrow tile that was in front of the insert and made a big 4' x 6' tiled space for the new stove. We have wood-look laminate floors in the livingroom. The place is made for dogs and workboots, logs and wood ash. Very livable and cozy. The tile needs to set and then get grouted tomorrow, and then it can be stepped on by late Monday or Tuesday. So I'm going to strong-arm the guy into setting a firm installation date for next week if possible. I'll leave the heat off so the house is very chilly when he comes tomorrow afternoon. I can fake-shiver with the best of 'em, too!
As soon as I knew the stove was coming, I went on a mission to get rid of the old one. I posted it on craigslist and within 20 hours had cash in hand and a nice hole in my chimney where it sat for years and years. I got almost half of what we paid for the new one, so it is not going to be as nerve-wracking to get it paid for now. We think that it will pay for itself in one winter on what we can save in oil, then we are home-free.
I will feel so much better with this type of stove. With the insert, the heat went right up the chimney unless the fan was blowing it into the house. Without power, we got very little heat. The same thing is true of a pellet stove. With this stove, if things get even tougher, we can scrounge wood and even cut some trees from our own woods in back. Can't do that with a pellet stove. Also, it has the added advantage of being able to cook on it somewhat.
I'm so excited!
"
It lit in a minute or two. The other stove....I had to stay near by for an hour at least to get it going when it was stone cold, and at least half hour of that time was spent kneeling in front of it, feeding it newspaper pretzels (roll a couple sheets of newspaper up really tight, the long way, then make a simple knot. This is one of the best firestarters I've used, and can even replace kindling if you are out.)
