Moving a delivery of firewood yesterday made me realise how unfit I’ve become.
Category Archives: House
Death pledge
Death Pledge. Or, as most of us know it, mortgage. I know. I have an app(lication) on my tablet; it counts down the days/weeks/months to an event My phone’s Ubuntu, so it doesn’t do stuff like that. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I looked up my mortgage, or the amount remaining to be paid. Apparently, despite multiple divorces, I now have just twelve months left on the mortgage. Which means that my retirement countdown may also have begun.
There may yet be adjustments, but I have early, approximate timescales.
Logs
A broken significant other, combined with a cold spell, has led to a noticeable increase in our firewood consumption My working hours haven’t accommodated a firewood delivery, so Lidl’s stock of logs has been most welcome. And at only £3.29 a bag, they’re great value. We’ve bought three this week.
Shelves
I’d meant to post a picture of my finished kitchen shelves. Which were actually finished a few weeks ago.
Heat
I can’t stress enough how much of a difference a wood burner can make. When I went to bed last night, I closed the door of the living room stove (the heating had been turned off hours beforehand). And, this morning, I was surprised to be met with a red glow when I opened the door again.
After a quick poke of the ashes and the addition of a couple of bits of wood, the fire had burst into life again.
And the heating’s not needed this morning.
Last winter, when a damaged chimney had put the wood burner out of action, our gas bill rocketed. But, with lined chimneys and a second stove, we’ll reverse that trend this winter.
Most important, though, it’s the nicest form of heating.
And finished
A little stove rope, some fire cement and a coat of paint; all finished.
The stove’s bigger than it looks, possibly more than we need for the room, since it’s an 8 or 9kw. But it’s legal in a smokeless zone.
I need to start thinking about the next project now.
Finally
There’s clearly still a little work to do, but the kitchen stove is finally fitted.
Should be able to try it out tomorrow.
Pointing
Today I have pointed the kitchen fireplace. My second in command is off for a haircut, then it’s a trip to B&Q for some fireproof concrete board. The stove won’t be fitted today, but it’s getting there.
The living room stove’s now up and running, so we just need to pick up some smokeless fuel.
Fortunately, the kitchen stove is super efficient, so we can burn wood in a smokeless zone. It’s a shame we couldn’t find one small enough for the living room though.
Busy
We’ve had a busy few days. My head has mostly been in a chimney, but the outcome of much dust ingestion is a working stove in the living room. It doesn’t look very different in comparison to its pre-lined state, but it now works properly.
I spent much of today sitting in the kitchen fireplace, where progress wasn’t exactly speedy. I shall be sitting there tomorrow too, pointing.
It hasn’t all been work though: on Friday evening we went to see Rattlebone play in Trillians. And, since we’re off work this week, we had a very nice Sunday afternoon\evening in town. And there was a walk down to Low Fell yesterday.
Well, a man needs to wash the dust away.
Spice rack
Since my IKEA spice racks were consigned to the bin during kitchen redecoration, we needed another.
Although evolved into something larger than originally planned, our kitchen shelves are shaping up nicely.
There’s a minor error in the construction, so filler will be needed. Otherwise they’d be at nil cost.