Will Work to $ave Money!

Steel, Wood, Cast Iron, Fireproofing, and more Wood! The last few weekends have been full of opportunity. and then... the follow through of deciding to grab that opportunity before it passed. while having dinner with a good friend of ours, also a local contractor, Amy and I had the chance to put our horribly inefficient, and expensive electric furnace on the back burner :) (pun intended). Our friend, Bob offered us a wood burning fireplace insert, which was "taking up space in the shop." I told him I would go take a look at it, and see if I had a use for it. so, I checked it out, looked up the information on it, and found that it is a high end, efficient European model! a Jotul C350. It has a few frilly curvy lines to it, but hey, I can deal with that for FREE!! Amy and I have looked into this upgrade to our house for some time now, and each time we seriously checked it out, we were pretty easily staring at a $4,000 bill, which has never been an option. this was something we had to jump on, and quick! why quick?? allow me to explain the snowball...

get wood burning stove, fit stove into existing construction,(while double checking that all combustible clearances are a-ok) add new flue through existing chimney, weather proof new flue at top of chimney, burn woo-- wait, can't burn yet, must make surround for the stove, run power to stove to run the fans (fans help this beast heat the whole house), burn woo-- must have dry wood, get firewood, have place to store firewood, have place to store and dry (here's the time issue. it takes at least 6 months to dry wood) enough firewood to last a cold season... whew! this just turned into a full on project! so... go snag some firewood from the neighbor's pile to use the stove for a few nights... :)

Steel, Cast Iron, Fireproofing
now, the real challenge of all of this was to do the rest of this with zero-no budget. a plus of working in the building industry is that you quickly build up a network of people you can call with questions, or to have access to materials otherwise not available at the local hardware store, (that's you, crappy Ace Hardware on Bainbridge Island). through these connections, I was able to get a hold of some nice hot rolled steel plate to build us a nice surround for the stove. it turned out great, and really completes the fireplace wall that we built last summer. the surround is made up of 3 steel plate sections, and a perimeter of steel angle. by welding everything together from the back, I was able to keep it clean, and movable as one piece. it is held in place by only 2 screws, so it is easy to remove for maintenance at any time.

wood stove install summary: Jotul insert (free)
stainless double-wall full height flue (free (another Bob donation))
fabricated sheet metal chimney cap
(1) bundle rock wool (fireproof insulation)
(1) sheet hot rolled steel

wood stove sub project: hand forge a poker.
yes, hand forge. its fun. all the cool kids are doing it. I hang out with a great group of guys/craftsmen/artists on Tuesday Nights, usually at a blacksmith shop here on the island. last week, I thought an appropriate project would be to forge a poker. luckily, Jay Trinidad, a local photographer, and friend, brought his camera that night, and captured the process. these photos are all Jay's handiwork, you can see more of his inspiring work here.





Wood, and more Wood
upon asking around about firewood, I quickly discovered that with some labor, I could have more than enough firewood for us to use, but it would not be ready to burn now, it would have to be dried/seasoned, and to do that around here, it needs to be stacked right about NOW. must have firewood shed(s). next is a challenge that every Architect should have to go through. build a structure that can hold 2+ cords of firewood with as few pieces of lumber as possible with the fewest cuts, all square, as little waste as possible, and every aspect of the structure must be the cheapest material of its kind. as a system, it must provide shelter, and be stable (stand up to wind, rain, snow, etc.) and structurally sound. this was fun. that nerdy kind of fun, where you spend way too much time tweaking things in order to make it more efficient, fewer parts and pieces. to the point where if you ask your wife one more question about it, she's going to throw things at you, or lock you out of the house :) the sheds that resulted from this process are now something we are proud of, and will be a vital part of keeping us warm for winters to come.

shed summary: (50) cheap 2x4 framing lumber
(4) cheap 2x6
(8) cheap corrugated metal panels
(12) CMU blocks (already own)
(16) 16' 1x boards (past free score, already used some for baseboards
throughout the house)


pile of waste:



altogether, this was a much more in depth project (aren't they always?!) than I originally anticipated. but with the use of free parts, some good hard work, and a tight (read as 'no') budget, we can now look forward to heating our house 'off the grid'. take that, power outages! (they happen a lot here on the island).

A huge thanks To Bob Grimm for this opportunity. without him, none of this would have been possible! much appreciated.

next week: back to the truck. I am dangerously close to spraying primer on the whole cab. big steps to come...