Home Fires Burning

Top of our list for 2011 was to get heat into the house, we called the mason and Wow!!!

The finished masonry wood stove with stream design in the chimney and the seat enhanced to stand out. The stain gives it a wet look.

Stove complete. Side view from dining room.

Mason Ben Swartzendruber from Brownsville OR shows off his talents. Three days after Ben started, his wife went into labour. He managed to come back to work after just one week, sleep deprivation and all!

Close-up of Petite Lone Pine Ledgestone.

Ben built a table top design around the oven.

We chose River Rock in contrasting colors to go into the chimney.

Close up of stove pipe into attic and through roof.

Stove pipe into second floor.

Ben and Roger installing the stove pipe through the roof.

Side view from the staircase.

Fire place is covered. Template for oven door above.

Beginning layers.

Ben positions the brick for chimney.

The core unit before.

Radiant Floor Heat

Kirk spent three weeks on his knees preparing and laying out radiant floor heat. We deliberately included this in our construction plan so that when we are away in the Winter the house will stay warm enough to avoid frozen or burst pipes. Furthermore building code will not allow us to have a wood stove as our sole heat source.

Taking measurements.

Kirk ripped all the plywood to size and then screwed the strips in place.

Sarah rounding corners.

Kitchen floor layout.

View of RFH PEX tubing in the mudroom before connection to manifold and pump.. The system is designed to operate on five different zones. Each zone has its own thermostat control.

Tim's bedroom.
Picture shows thin set mortar troweled into grooves, covering the PEX tubing.



Kitchen



Mudroom. Nice for drying muddy boots and dirty dogs.

Winter Projects

January and February were spent doing miscellaneous small jobs in the house in preparation for the big ones like dry wall and interior plaster

Kirk wisely put in bracing in the wall of the downstairs bathroom. Down the road when we are too decrepit to climb the stairs to our now master bathroom we will need wheelchair access to the shower on the lower floor. Hopefully not for decades to come.

Since we use well water which is high in sulphur and minerals we installed a Kentico Water Treatment system for the entire house. The water is very hard so in the long run this system will preserve our plumbing and keep corrosion of pipes to a minimum.

In an effort to recycle and reduce the mountain of mineral inserts left over from our exterior blocks, Sarah got busy filling in holes and gaps around the windows and walls. Pretty labour intensive but worth it to stay draft free.