HEAT!!

The wall goes up...the wall goes down! We framed this wall in, originally, to serve as a bar area. We were going to put a wine rack on the top and cabinets on the bottom and the came winter! Our first years heating bills of $800+ to keep the house at 62 were well over what we were willing to send to Ameren. We decided to put in a wood stove instead. So, we framed it differently, removed some insulation and put in the slate wall and now, with winter coming fast, we are getting the wood stove in the kitchen. With the location of the furnace, we are hoping that the warm kitchen air will be circulated throughout the house with the blower from the furnace. So, we are poking a 10" hole in the kitchen wall. No turning back now!

The view from the other side. Seth is on the scaffolding outside looking in through the hole.

You can see the scaffolding, the bracket holding up the pipe and the pipe ging up the outside of the house.

Look carefully and you can see the Charles on the roof -in the dark- getting the last piece of pipe through the roof. The forecast is for rain, so once the hole was made, he had to finish or risk water damage. Working on the roof in the cold and the dark was not fun and neither was climbing up and down the roof and scaffolding abut a million times, but we should be much more comfortable this winter!

Doesn't it look nice and warm and cozy. We fired it up the next day once the fire stuff was installed and the pipes were all hooked up! Charles and Seth worked really hard to make this happen and it adds to the charm of our kitchen. The draw is perfect and the kitchen-a room that was intolerable last year because it was too cold - is toasty warm so far this year! Here's to heat and a gas bill we can live with!

Back Porch-Exit Stage Left

This old back porch was in very bad shape. The decking was rotten and the posts were bowed and bent. Underneath was fenced in with chain link fence and, for some reason, there was a metal trash can hung under the rafters? We are wondering if the makeshift cage was put up in the 80's as a dwelling for the bobcat that inhabited the house and yard.

We still have some cleanup to do on the wall, but will, eventually, put a small deck back out here. Originally, this probably served as the sleeping porch when the house got too warm in the summer. The back window, that is now in the laundry room, was a door at one point. If we ever put a garage on, it will probably be returned to a door, but time will tell on that one.

The rotten back porch is gone and the area is all cleaned up! YEAH! Another eyesore-looking better!