23 March 2018

Searching for a wood burner

I have two fireplaces in the new house! I would like wood burners in there. I'd like them to be broken out to the original size, all in raw slate, and then plonk wood burners in there. These are a bit easier to just shut and not worry about. But I needed to find people to do it! I had phoned one without success, but the first Saturday after being sure it would all go ahead I decided to drive to the two nearby-ish showrooms. One booked me a home visit so they could make me a quote. The other one said they would be in touch. It's rolling, sort of! But I do have to change my ideas on budget. These bloody log burners are expensive! I thought it should be possible to get one for £400. I mean, it's just a cast iron box with a door! How expensive does that have to be? But very expensive, apparently. Start with twice what I had in mind! Oh dear...

I'm not sure how I'll go on with this. Maybe have one fireplace and one wood burner! The fireplace in the living room, then, and the wood burner in the landing. That one is really close to the wood of the banister so I do want to be able to close the door. And I want to plonk my desk there; what I would like is to be able to go do some computer work in a room that is not constantly heated but which I can make nice and warm rather quickly. A fire can do that! And I'd love to be able to do work in a snug environment. I now have the master bedroom as my home office. It's not a bad room at all, but it's not terribly snug! And it's rather thermally inert. There's no point having the heating on high in there, but that does mean I can't warm it up for the occasion. I look forward to the new configuration!

Starting with the fireplaces seemed the reasonable thing to do; that sounds like the first thing that needs doing. If you send the painter/decorator in first then the fireplace-person will make a mess of the work just done. I hope it all works out well!

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 It won't look this old-fashioned! But I hope I get to make it look 19th century... Pic by Willy Horsch, Rheinisches Freilichtmuseum Kommern, Herdstelle

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