Hearthstone Homestead - Update- Santa Brought us a Surround

My Stove in Action (if the picture uploads)

Is that the blue-black?


Nice kettle-where did you find it?

Yes that's the blue-black finish. The kettle is just a stainless tea pot my wife had. We were using it until we decided on a steamer. Ended up with the Hearthstone soapstone steamer which I didn't care for at first sight but you treat the stone with a vegetable oil and cure it and the finish turns dark. Compliments the stove very well. I'll have to get a picture of that up here soon. The kettle, I have no idea where my wife got it but besides it's nice look it's pretty worthless (IMHO), both as a steamer and teapot. The actual bottom surface area is tiny compared to the volume so it's slow to heat up. By the time the water is ready I've lost the desire for tea.

I really like the look of your stove--did you put oil on the stove to make it darker as well? Probably not, as I imagine any oil on the stone would burn off. Maybe it is the light, but the stone looks darker than the stone shown at the Hearthstone website.

Without andirons, what keeps the logs from rolling forward?

You're right, the lighting makes the stone look darker than it is. But then again my stove is darker than other Hearthstones I've seen. The wife and I were very happy when we saw it. It looked nicer than the floor models. I don't really use many logs, mostly splits so there isn't much rolling around in there. Once in a while a pile may colapse sending a split toward the door. Where the door opens the bottom lip is slanted down into the fire box which seems to direct things in the right direction. Haven't really had any problems keeping the stuff in the stove.

Santa brought us a surround for the Homestead!
Need to get a better pic when there's fire going.