Revamping & Retiling

Remember back when I first started?  I noted that the decision to rebuild our chimney and use the fireplace is what got us started... You know.  Doing all this.  Anyway, the fireplace kept our house pretty durn toasty last winter, but we still had to use the oil heater a few times.  This winter was a bear's ass, and our heater sweetly decided to go kaput on us.  After we had filled the tank up, of course.  

Hubs found a wood burning stove deeply discounted, and it was clearly meant to be.  The back room, for all intensive purposes, is our living room.  It's where Boo watches Blues Clues, where we play Xbox with friends, and where I further my growing addiction to Doctor Who.  But it is a very long, very skinny room, and up until recently it's ended up being mostly just a catch all for stuff and mess.  It was added on to the house in the '50s (used to have God awful orange and yellow shag carpet to prove it) and is not very well insulated.  So sticking the stove back there was a no brainer.  

Poose approves of the decision.  The burner room for the heater backs directly up to the wall the tv is mounted on.  Which means that there is also a chimney in said room.  So that just worked out perfectly.  Course, you can't put a wood burning stove in an alcove made of wood with a flatscreen roof.  That has bad juju written all over it.  

We had to do some retiling to make sure everything was safe.  The lovely floor covering you see in the picture is what we found underneath the shag carpet.  Which was still an improvement.

Jumbo made his choice.  Unfortunately for him, though, we went with tile #3.

Boo got in on the job!  Helping out is his favorite.

Scraping up tiles with Pops.

We had to cover the back wall up, but I didn't particularly want floor tiles staring back at me.  I suggested getting some of that fancy backsplashy stuff, but completely left choosing it up to Hubs.  He did not disappoint.

The thimble installed and the stones pre-mud.

Closeup.  

All installed and keeping us toasty warm!  Just in time for 70 degree weather, but at least we're ahead of the game for next winter.  Even on the bitterest of days, our house stays about 70.  No complaints here!  Plus our 'back room' finally legitimately feels like a living room. 

I highly recommend getting a wood stove if you have the opportunity.  It is so choice.

If you didn't get that one, get off my blog. 

(No, don't.  Please stay.)

I am thankful to have this bad boy, but even MORE thankful that I haven't needed to use it this week!  Hope things are warming up wherever you are.