Say hello to my little friend

I feel like I've been on a tangent posting about all of our projects around here--but we really have been doing a ton! I thought I would continue on the trend and reveal my favorite thing that has become a part of our house lately: our new wood stove!

Shane and I have wanted to get a wood stove for a while, for lots of reasons. Mainly--they are a great source of heat! Burning wood, even if you are paying for it, is much cheaper than paying outrageous gas bills--yeeps! Plus, we love the look of them.

This year, we saved up and took the plunge. Let me say, we both think that it has been the best investment we have made in a long time! We love it. It's been in for several weeks, and I love being snuggly warm in my house (rather than doing like most everyone else does--turning the heat to the absolute lowest temperature that the family can stand to try to save money! 68 is too cold for a house, people! I want to be warm and cozy in my house, not shivering with three layers of clothing on!)

Now a days, it's not uncommon for our thermostat to look like this, especially at night when Shane is in one of his 'lets-see-how-hot-I-can-get-this-bad-boy' moods:

{Our record, if you're curious, is 88. Ahem.}

Here's the project, as best as I am able to show you, from start to finish:

When Shane re-did our living room {which I have yet to do a post on, but I will--someday}, he left one wall blank and installed some spotlights in the ceiling. We weren't sure what would go there, but figured someday we would put up some art or a collage of pictures--and then we would have a couple of spotlights to light them up at night.

We've had our living room project done for a while now....but, all this time, we have found nothing that we were happy with to go on that wall.

Enter the wood stove. This blank area was simply a perfect, ideal spot for it!

The blank wall before....

Shane began the project by measuring and cutting the carpet out of the area where the hearth would go. Of course, he is never without at least one helper right by his side. Cameron has been his sidekick lately--can't seem to keep that boy away from his Daddy!

After the area was cut out, the boys helped Daddy take up the carpet.

Such good little helpers. *grin*

Cameron wanted to continue helping....so Shane gave him a hammer and instructed
him to pound in all of the staples from the carpet. He happily (and loudly) obliged.

Then, Shane built the base of the hearth out of wood and plywood, and installed it.
The boys helped by testing out its sturdiness and cleaning up the wood shavings.

Of course, as with many areas of our house, the hearth had to have a curve.
(For example--every single one of our entryways has arches above. You will see
some in pictures below. It's like one of Shane's signatures--no right angles for
my hubby!) Nothing, I mean nothing, can be simple with him--he is all
about adding those special details that make things stand out as "his"!

The concrete board (tile backer) and curve of the plywood front going on....

...and then, Shane added some beautiful wood trim to the edge. We stained that later,
to match the rest of the trim in that room. You can see that in the pic below.

I don't know exactly why, but I don't have any pictures of Shane laying the slate tile! What a bummer....but you can see here, he is now into the very messy grouting process!

All grouted, and Shane doing one of the many wipe-downs

needed to get all of the film off of the tile.

We installed the stove, hung some pictures, added some accessories and a few decorations, and wham! Our blank wall now looks exactly like it was made for this stove!

Here's one of the best shots I could get of the whole living room--you can see the
arches here, too! (One leading into the hall, one into the dining room, and if you
look hard enough, you can see the one from the dining room into the family
room--that's the biggest one, with giant wood beams supporting it on both sides.)

Did I mention how cozy it is?!

Just another slice out of our lives right now....coming soon--finished pictures of the boys' room!