When we first moved into this tiny house, I insisted on a fire. There's always been two things I believe a home should have - a bath, and a wood burner - it's just so cosy, especially in southern Victorian winter in Australia.
Some of you may recall where we started, opening up the wall into the old chimney where once there was a wall heater, likely gas. Jamie then put cement board at the back and plaster - dry wall - to create a neat alcove for it to sit and not eat into the small room space.
Although we could do most of it ourselves, and Jamie could have even installed it, regulations mean your insurance is voided unless you get a certified installer to do it, costing us $990 which we felt was an insane amount of money. Still, we had done the rest of it ourselves, including the bluestone hearth which was 3 pavers instead of one large slab, saving us around $800 on that alone.
Even the Charnwood oven, made on the Isle of Wight in the UK, was secondhand and cost us a third of the price. It has a ton of eco specs and is super efficient - we have already noticed how well it heats the house and it uses much less wood than our old burner to do so.
There's just something about a fire, don't you think?
We have raided skips and under the house for old bits of hardwood - and are using up last winters store of wood, what little we have. Hopefully we won't need to buy any as that's when the real costs start adding up. Whilst we do get cold southerly off the Antarctic, we don't get snow, so this little stove will be awesome.
With Love,
The instal came just as the nights
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Lovely and cosy! We had a similar fire in our previous place. After a long day at work, I put some wood beside it, lit the fire, and then chilled on the sofa. I could feel the warmth and the lovely scent of the burning wood. I was so relaxed that I fell asleep. Until the whole thing heated up, and the wood I’d left outside the fireplace caught fire. By the time I woke up choking from the smoke, it had turned into a big fire and nearly burned the whole place down! We had to throw buckets of water on it to put it out.
So don’t put wood nearby, don’t be like me, a silly sod! Haha 😄
I do miss having a fire indoors though. They’re so lovely. Now I only light fires outside in my steel wheel rim fire pit!
Omg that would have been so scary!!! Exactly why we followed the fire regulations and keep the wood far enough from the fire that won't happen! Jamie is Mr Safety so we are good.
I could see you are careful. But if that hasn’t happened to you, it can easily be done through carelessness or a simple mistake. Your wood burner is beautiful, well done. :)
I love everything you are doing to this house!!! But this stove takes the cake. It's so very cute, and stylish, and practical. Perfect.
So glad to see the finished product! Looks great. It should be nice and comfy during those cold winter evenings. I can just see you sitting there with a book and some coffee and Jamie watching tank videos. LOL
Bloody tank videos grrrrrr
Hahahahha gif from a VET, seems legit 😜🔥
I've heated with wood since 1977 and nothing warms you like a properly installed wood stove. In fact, I've had both of mine going since yesterday as the temps dropped into the 40'sF during the day yesterday, and there's hard frost out there right now from the night. It's to be 40's during the day today and even colder, into the upper 20's tonight. So the stove will be going for a while...
Amd you have the most enviable wood stack!!!
It looks so warm and cozy. I love a real wood fire when I rent holiday accommodations, it just adds to the ambience. And it's great to see that you've added yet another bit of England to your home
Yes, a bit of British 🏴🇬🇧 steel, we didn't even know they were a thing til we researched.
I love your stove!!Something so cozy and warm about a stove. Plus, you're not dependent on someone else providing you with fuel.
For most of my childhood our house was heated by a wood burning stove. Not a cute one like yours, but a cast iron behemoth that served as stove, oven and heater. I don't know how old that thing was...must have been from the 19th century. Still chugged along and did its job.
Wishing you many happy evenings together in front of your lovely stove.
Thankyou! Yes it feels a little like independence and we can cook on it if we need to! Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Those behemoths were certainly functional - I know some people still rely on them in the UK but mainly if you're well off and can afford fuel. They are a bit of a luxury!
Funny. We had one because we were poor. We had a forest in our backyard so all we needed was an axe :))
If there's one thing I hate it's paying for wood! We call it 'wooding' - as in an active verb where we scout for fallen wood.
That looks wonderful! I like how clean and compact the design of the stove is. After living with my first wood (pellet) stove for a winter I can't imagine having another house without one. Even if we end up in Arizona I'd probably get one for the cool desert nights.
Oh are you thinking of moving to Arizona?
Possibly! We've only been in the house for only about a year and a half but found out a neighboring city has approved the construction of ten data centers and all of them will be sharing our same aquifer and power station. The data centers are notorious for polluting the water and energy bills for residents around them usually end up paying a lot more for their electricity—so we have decisions to make. I've wanted to get out of Minnesota for a long time due to the extreme weather/high taxes and we have relatives in the Sedona area so it makes sense. Summer isn't quite as bad in northern AZ as it is further south.
Congratulations on getting the stove installed. It looks so comfy and cozy in your home, I'm so happy for you both. Great job, well done!