An Update on the Fireplace Project

Sorry for the lack of posting, but we've been quite busy here in the McDonald Household!

Winter is on its way, so we've been hard at work trying to get the final wall in our living room completed. This is the wall that's been boarded up since we had to tear the original chimneyand fireplace down when we fixed the foundation issues.

The last weekend we had decent weather, Brian worked on the concrete base for the outer chimney caseing we'll be building.

He is getting GOOD with that concrete!

After much consideration and calculation, scrimping and saving our pennies, this is the stove/fireplace we had decided to go with. It is a "zero-clearance, high-efficiency, wood-burning fireplace."

Well, we got it ordered and got it home, and after some final calculations, we discovered, with the current set up of our wall, it WASN'T going to work!

Needless to say, we were a tad frustrated with the situation.

Long story short: luckily we were able to exchange the first stove for one that would actually work with the pre-existing area where we're installing it. We'll have to make some minor modifications, but not nearly as extreme as we would have had to have done with the first set up. So instead of it looking like a fireplace with a glass door, its going to look like this!

A free-standing wood stove.

It will have a black pipe coming out of the top and going through the wall to the outside.

Brian as to cut his beautiful mantle to follows the specs, but he'll have fun reworking a mantle up above the pipe.

Since Brian has to cut a hole in the outer wall for the pipe to go through, we tarped off the outer wall to keep the rain out! We sure give our neighbors lots to wonder about!

Currently, our entire living room is covered with stove pieces. Its sort of a jigsaw puzzle with many different types and length of pipe to play around with to get it to fit just right!

We're being EXTRA cautious and making sure we read the manual VERY CAREFULLY. This is an important project to get just right. There are many regulations and strict codes that must be followed when dealing with a fireplace and chimney.

But - we can't wait until its completed and we can sit in the living room

and cuddle around a cozy fire together!

There is nothing like a warm fire in the winter to keep the spirits bright!