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.

Bring On The Heat

The custom masonry wood stove that we ordered is finally ready for installation. Stan Homola of Woodland WA the master craftsman arrived with his grandson, Jaydon to begin setting up the core unit.

Some of the bricks and stones are brought in.

Jaydon mixing mortar









Stan showing Ben our local mason a few tricks on the trade. Ben will build the chimney and skin the fire with natural rocks at the end of the process.



Beginning of brick work. These bricks can withstand very high heat.




Stan after 40 years in the trade shows no signs of slowing down and completed his part of the installation in two days. We are delighted with the quality of his work



Somebody whispered that the unit will weigh approximately 6,000lbs once completed. We hope the house won't fall down....at least we will be nice and toasty.



The finished unit. From left, Ben, Jaydon and Stan.