My original "hole in the wall" exposed when removeing the 30 year old Country Flame insert.
Insulated with roxul and durock. Roxul was not available locally without special ordering it so I found a small town hardware store 30 miles away that had some.
Lined the durock with heavy duty aluminum foil. No idea if this will actually do anything but what the heck. Liner is pre-insulated. Not as flexible as I had anticipated. Live and learn.
I've since installed the Jotul 350 insert and currently breaking it in with a few small fires.
It's not primary heat by any means but we're using it to help heat the kitchen and tv room. Hope it works better than the 30 year old insert that vented into the firebox. My wife chose the dark green that the majority of the brick is painted but before the insert was in the wife decided it was too dark so I mixed several different shades and let her choose the one she wanted. Once the insert was in she decided she liked the original dark green
. I'm glad I didn't repaint it before installing. Fortunately I still have enough of the dark paint to patch the lighter colors I'm going to make an insert of brick veneer on some durock to fit in the space above the stove so it can be easily removed for access to the insert in the future. Because of the flue location and overhead clearance I had to use an offset adapter to get the liner connected to the insert. Again, nothing available locally so I drove 40 miles to another small town that had a well stocked store. This is my first (and I think my last) insert install job and it gave this 68 year old a real workout. Not a job I would attempt by myself again for sure. 
Insulated with roxul and durock. Roxul was not available locally without special ordering it so I found a small town hardware store 30 miles away that had some.
Lined the durock with heavy duty aluminum foil. No idea if this will actually do anything but what the heck. Liner is pre-insulated. Not as flexible as I had anticipated. Live and learn.
I've since installed the Jotul 350 insert and currently breaking it in with a few small fires.
It's not primary heat by any means but we're using it to help heat the kitchen and tv room. Hope it works better than the 30 year old insert that vented into the firebox. My wife chose the dark green that the majority of the brick is painted but before the insert was in the wife decided it was too dark so I mixed several different shades and let her choose the one she wanted. Once the insert was in she decided she liked the original dark green
. I'm glad I didn't repaint it before installing. Fortunately I still have enough of the dark paint to patch the lighter colors I'm going to make an insert of brick veneer on some durock to fit in the space above the stove so it can be easily removed for access to the insert in the future. Because of the flue location and overhead clearance I had to use an offset adapter to get the liner connected to the insert. Again, nothing available locally so I drove 40 miles to another small town that had a well stocked store. This is my first (and I think my last) insert install job and it gave this 68 year old a real workout. Not a job I would attempt by myself again for sure. 
