Firewood closet??

[brian_in_idaho]

In my last house, as well as the one I'm building now, I put in a "indoor/outdoor" closet, with an exterior door to the outside, and a cabinet style door on the inside. This lets me haul and load my wood from the outside without tracking dirt/snow through the house on my boots. On the last place, the stove was on an outside wall, with the inside door of the closet on the top of the hearth. This really worked well from the convience/loading standpoint, though not so great from a heating standpoint. The new place has the stove located in the center of the house, with the closet located in the laundry room. I'll have to carry wood through the house, but I think it will be worth it.

OK, so who else has done something like this, or what other cool ways have you come up with to solve this problem? In this place, the garage is detached so it wasn't an option.

Hope this make sense.

Bri

 

[brian_in_idaho]

OK, lets see if I done figgred how to post pics

This is at the old place.

Bri

 

[suematteva]

That setup is real nice..very clean..

One end of the basement is the garage, the other the stove, in the garage we have about 10-14 days of wood, in the stove area we have a large well made pine box, when that is full it is good for 48 hours of burning with mansfield..

 

[velvetfoot]

In the last place we had a cedar box next to the stove that we put wood in. The last year we were there I had the bright idea of opening the window above it and dropping the wood in from outside. It actually worked. The closet thing looks real good, but it sounds like it was a little cool in the area around it?

I'm just trying to figure out how to do things in the new place. My wife has pretty much nixed putting the box next to the fireplace, although I might revisit that issue. Our current place has a breezeway and an attached garage. The box is currently in the enclosed breezeway. I am thinking of also putting in one of those racks that someone posted about recently inside the breezeway as well. I am also thinking of putting in some wood in the garage. I still found it inconvenient to open get the wood from the breezeway and bring it to the little rack near the stove.

 

[Rhone]

Your old house was awesome! How cool having that compartment with access to the outside & inside that you put your wood in.

I hated every option I'd seen for storing wood inside near the stove/insert. It was either completely open so bugs can freely escape, or didn't hold as much wood as I wanted, or completely enclosed so the wood didn't get any air flow to dry before burning, or didn't have a bottom so any snow you brought in would melt and you needed to get a rubber mat or something to put under it or put the thing in a pan.

So, I built an Armoire. It's two oversized compartments, with screen doors to allow the wood to dry a bit before burning, each side holds enough to last me about 3-4 days and I made a top section with two smaller compartments to store my kindling, etc. Not realizing how big I’d made the bottom piece, it's about as big a piece of furniture the room can handle. When I put on the top also, it turned monstrous, closed in the room, disrupted our open floor plan and we decided the top had to go. My kindling etc. sits in a sort of magazine rack near one of the couches now. The size of this is 4’Wx5’6"Hx2’D. I planned on using fabric instead of screening for the doors because the fabric would allow air flow and wouldn't allow as much view of the wood, but our interior decorator said that would mess up her balance and counter balance of furniture, fabrics, and wall colors she'd picked for us, and that screening would compliment the decor. So, screening it was.

You can see a big open square cut out in the back on the top covered in screening. That’s for the muffin fans I originally planned to put in. There's lots of 1” holes all through the back covered in screening for increased air flow and there's a white gasket on the inside around the door frame that stops bugs from being able to escape. The doors stay shut with 2 cabinet magnets each. That works well, last winter only 6 bugs found their way out and into the house and only 1 mosquito and keeping the wood inside for 3-4 days before burning was a big improvement.

Nothing extravagent, still needs finish or paint, still needs trim. All made of 3/4” maple finish grade plywood for the outside, and regular 3/4” plywood on the inside to seperate the two compartments. The doors 3/4"x3" maple made by my father (thank god, you have to know what you’re doing to make a screen door corners fit and be strong, and they need to be exact). Haven't figured out yet to stain or paint. As a winter project this year I'll probably complete it. As for the wood, when we're done using our open porch in fall I move it there (our porch is cement). Our porch can hold about 2 cords. Makes me feel like I'm a hick with my wood on the porch but, much easier to load my Armoire from the porch than it is from the other side of my property in winter.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

velvetfoot, I didn't have any problem with cold air from the wood closet, the exterior door was a regular wood, exterior door, it sealed fine. My stove was an insert, mounted in an exterior chase, I lost a lot of heat with it. The only exposed area was the front of the stove and a small portion of the sides, some heat came off due to natural convection and a fair amount with the blower, but I lost all radiant off the rest of the stove and pipe. I was real happy with the way the closet worked out. The only other negative is that this was towards my view side of the house, the stove and closet took up potential window space. Can't win.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

Oh yeah, I'm not done with the hearth at the new place and already figured out where I screwed up... The hearth is elevated maybe 16 inches, I don't like to bend over too much to load the stove and this gives me a place to sit and warm my back up next to the stove! I should have built a couple of cavities under there open to the front for wood storage-duh. I think I'll pass now, I just finished installing the lath last night and plan to start on the cultured stone tonight, I don't feel like dealing with the demolition to change now. Wish I'd thought of it last week.

 

[velvetfoot]

The closet looks real nice Brian. Was the outside of the closet incorporated in the chase?

 

[brian_in_idaho]

Rhonemas, that is a nice looking installation. I like the approach of being able to have that big a ready wood supply right by the stove. The little closet at the old place held maybe 3 nights worth, at the new place its a fari bit bigger, hoping to last for about a week. Winter days are real short, it would be nice to be able to haul wood on the weekend when I can get out in the daylight and make it to the next weekend. We'll see.

 

[woodflamer]

We were lucky, when we bought our house, they had put in a patio door right next to the fireplace.
I go outside to the wood racks, fill a heaping wheelbarrow up, then I wheel it 5 feet to the patio door
and hand the pieces inside to my wife. She puts them right into the wood hold that is built into the fireplace.
I then go fill the wheelbarrow again and put a small tarp over it.
It works out nicely and I only have to uncover the racks every 2 wheelbarrows.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

The closet looks real nice Brian. Was the outside of the closet incorporated in the chase?

Yeah, it is mounted on the front face of the chase, the door was cut down (or the bottom cut up if you want to think of it that way) such that the outside was about like that inside door, though somewhat taller. Worked real well.

The new one is full height outside, the narrowest steel door I could get, I think 22 inches?? On the inside I'll do a small one like that old one, below the door will be a seating area for taking off shoes/boots, etc in the util room. Not ideal, but I think it will be fine. It gives me a place to set the log carrier.

 

[suematteva]

The closet looks real nice Brian. Was the outside of the closet incorporated in the chase?

Yeah, it is mounted on the front face of the chase, the door was cut down (or the bottom cut up if you want to think of it that way) such that the outside was about like that inside door, though somewhat taller. Worked real well.

The new one is full height outside, the narrowest steel door I could get, I think 22 inches?? On the inside I'll do a small one like that old one, below the door will be a seating area for taking off shoes/boots, etc in the util room. Not ideal, but I think it will be fine. It gives me a place to set the log carrier.

Come on......Almost like a tree fort when we were kids, before you do the wood, a couple cold ones outside in the snow,, finish loading the wood closet..take the boots off in there, straight into the leather chair...pop the top on a few Ice cold Genessee's right in front of the stove Bring it on..

It is good idea..

 

[brian_in_idaho]

The closet looks real nice Brian. Was the outside of the closet incorporated in the chase?

Yeah, it is mounted on the front face of the chase, the door was cut down (or the bottom cut up if you want to think of it that way) such that the outside was about like that inside door, though somewhat taller. Worked real well.

The new one is full height outside, the narrowest steel door I could get, I think 22 inches?? On the inside I'll do a small one like that old one, below the door will be a seating area for taking off shoes/boots, etc in the util room. Not ideal, but I think it will be fine. It gives me a place to set the log carrier.

Come on......Almost like a tree fort when we were kids, before you do the wood, a couple cold ones outside in the snow,, finish loading the wood closet..take the boots off in there, straight into the leather chair...pop the top on a few Ice cold Genessee's right in front of the stove Bring it on..

It is good idea..

Substitute Kokanees for Genesses and you have it spot on! I'm not in NY anymore (Toto?). Oh man, Genny screamers, brings back memories!

http://www.kokaneebeer.com/

I used to be a Labbats Blue fan back in the day...

 

[BrotherBart]

The one store here that sells Genny Light ran out one time. I went into withdrawl.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

The one store here that sells Genny Light ran out one time. I went into withdrawl.

I didn't realize Genny was shipping that far south!

 

[BrotherBart]

The one store here that sells Genny Light ran out one time. I went into withdrawl.

I didn't realize Genny was shipping that far south!

Just one store that I know of in the state has the stuff. A grocery store got in one load one time. That was what got me started on it. Then they stopped. Luckily I found the snooty wine store with the Genny in the back. I like the red, but after drinking light for a few years the hi-test knocks me on my butt.

 

[Homefire]

I carry my wood in as needed (lets me get outside to check out my splives ) and I drink the beer that is on sell.
I guess I am just not as interested in saving a few steps as I am in saving a few bucks

 

[suematteva]

The one store here that sells Genny Light ran out one time. I went into withdrawl.

I didn't realize Genny was shipping that far south!

Just one store that I know of in the state has the stuff. A grocery store got in one load one time. That was what got me started on it. Then they stopped. Luckily I found the snooty wine store with the Genny in the back. I like the red, but after drinking light for a few years the hi-test knocks me on my butt.

That kokannee is good stuff, didn't realize it was available in the states..

With the tax at 14.5% and the exchange the way it is the last couple years, it is kinda funny, I buy a case a labatts in Vermont and bring it into Quebec..Some of Suzanne's brothers think it tastes better..Maybe i should start stocking Pabst Blue Ribbon...PBR's or Old Millwaters...Thanks for the genny screamers memories...forgot about the screamers part...

 

[brian_in_idaho]

Yeah, Gennys did do some nasty things to the old GI tract. I used to like a John Labbats Extra Stock, you could get it around Buffalo once in a while. I've been spoiled out here in the Northwest-discovered microbrews! Alaskan Amber, Fat Tire and Black Bute Porter are some of my favorites. Or give a dark beer called Moose Drool a try.

All this talk about the "old country" is making me hungry! You can't get a decent order of wings or a beef on weck out here .

Oh well, the country (and lack of Hillary) is worth it!

Bri

 

[Homefire]

Have you had the Lucky Logger brew or can you get that in Idaho?
We use to pound those down by the case after a day in the woods.
I lived in the Jefferson Wilderness area for 10 years 1970 - 79.

Use to love some Oly beer and Elk jerky

 

[hilly]

Lucky Lager? That stuff is king here on Vancouver Island. I know more people that only drink Lucky than any other brand...especially if you're from a small town! As the saying goes, "Some do, some don't, but I always get Lucky!"

 

[brian_in_idaho]

I've never had Lucky Logger, I'll have to keep my eyes open for it. Always looking for a good house brew!

 

[DavidV]

Brian , what kind of stove is that in the pic?

 

[elkimmeg]

Memories When ,in late teens when we could find a buyer It was Colt 45 16 oz cans
In the woods thee was a spring that came out under a rock that is where we would put out stash.
Always nice and cold. No special method of storing wood Inside the screen porch when I know it is going to snow I stock up a few days worth. Most the time it is the canvas holder in each arm out back to the wood piles. Some times it is bring out my 1969 tractor
and fill the dump cart and cover it next to my garage that saves steps. At one point We had so much snow I could not get the pk plow truck up back I could not make the hill so it was the old fashion snow shoes to the wood pile. Finally with my backhoe I was able to clear enough to plow next to the piles.

 

[My_3_Girls]

In college, Knickerbocker 16oz bottles were king. Stuff tasted like cheerios, but was around $10 a case! "no really, I've only had a couple!"