Saturday, January 16, 2010

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!

18 comments:

Robin Bair said...

love it....beautiful...i'm freezing over here in our 1890 house with huge original windows.

Amanda said...

wow... gorgeous! He's very talented... you're very blessed.

Homegrown Tribe said...

your hubby rocks! Paul CAN do that but sure doesn't find the time to. It does look very cozy. And 88... HOLY COW! We keep it on 68. I don't think he would survive in ND. Ha!

britt

Nancy said...

I've said it before, but it's worth saying again - your house is beautiful! You and Shane do such a great job of working on projects together. Love the new look of your living room! Can't wait to see pics of the boys' room, too!

Hannah J said...

We grew up in Alaska, where are our parents were missionaries. My dad installed the first woodstove in our house when I was in the jr high/high school age and it CHANGED our family. Instead of all (6!) of us kids going to our rooms and shutting the doors, we all would cozy up in the living room and spend time together. It was the best thing ever. Enjoy it!

Shaina N said...

LOVE IT! My parents are going to add on a room to their house to put in a woodstove for next winter. My Dad's an electrical engineer, and after 2 very long outages this winter, he's convinced that the winters are going to get colder and the outages more frequent... plus all the eco charges are going to force electric bills through the roof in coming years, he wants to be prepared! I'm very excited about this addition to their house, and hope it looks as cosy and nice as yours does! I loooove the style in your house, it's very much how I would like my home (when we move out of an apartment) to look!

Bethany @ Our 4 Sons Plus 1...Super Cute Girly Girl said...

That looks fantastic!! What a great job, and I bet that feels good to be all done before Baby Girl makes her arrival!!

And for the record, we have great taste, you and I - as I was scrolling down the pics, I noticed that something looked very familiar, and...we have the same couches!! ha ha :)

MomMom said...

I LOVE it. How nice to have such a handyman for a husband!! The room looks so very cozy. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Can't wait to see the boys' room.

Julie said...

Oh DEV! Just gorgeous!

You'd HATE it at our house - our thermostat usually hangs out around 65 in the winter. :)

Amanda Hoyt said...

I LOVE LOVE your living room! It is just beautiful! Wish I lived there :) Gorgeous Christmas trees too!!
Hope to be able to respond to your email shortly :)
Hugs,
Amanda

Kristy said...

LOVE it AND that color! I am in the process of repainting our home. I am killing myself trying to find the perfect colors! UGH!

Kara said...

seriously, can you send him down here to help Cory finish up a couple of things...I mean surely you don't need him ALL the time :)

He is one amazing handy man and you are one blessed girl, but you knew that already!

LOVE IT!

Karie said...

Um, yes please. Shane, when are you coming up????

Carolyn said...

WoW. I love it! My kind of room. Kinda wish it was mine. Sigh.

Leanne said...

How amazing and beautiful!!

My husband will be putting a wood stove in my folks' home soon and I love the look of the slate tile in your home. I'm a big fan of natural colors and textures. I'll have to show him this post....

I'm thinking it's just about time for Peanut to come! And how cozy your home will be for her when she gets here, with the beautiful wood stove!

Your husband is amazing!!

Jami said...

It looks great! How blessed you are to have such a talented hubby!

Sandy said...

beautiful!

Nic said...

That is awesome! I'm thinkin I need to show Big Daddy that! And 88?!? Are heating bill was four hundred forty dollars and that's set on 70! I can't imagine =) Very cute picture above too!