Thinking this might just be good enough...I stepped up onto the slab to see if it was resting solidly. Unfortunately, it noticeably rocked from front to back as I shifted my weight. "Surely it won't rock once I put the stove in place" I thought to myself, dreading the idea of lifting the slab up again. Then I laid on the floor to look at the fit between the bottom of the slab and the 3rd course of bricks on the front edges. I didn't like it; a 1/4 to 3/8" gap with no mortar was not great to look at. Of course, you'd have to lay with your face right on the floor to actually see it, but being an anal retentive nut job, it just wasn't going to work for me. The slab would have to come back up. The good news is that the rear edges of the slab and the brick walls mated up nice and tight.
So I summoned all of my strength, and like the middle-aged Olympian I imagine myself to be, I picked the slab up and leaned it against the wall. The crowd went wild!
Out into the driveway in the black of early evening, I set about mixing up a batch of mortar. I dragged in my mortar board and whipped up about 20 perfectly shaped turds of black mortar. I then positioned them in a continuous line on top of the 3rd course of bricks to ensure a nice joint and then in 10 strategic positions across the cinder blocks. Once I had used all 40lbs of mortar, I jumped up to drop the slab in place before the mortar could set. Confident in my ability to actually support the weight of the slab, I was able to lower it with much less fanfare this time. Once lowered, I scooted it into the corner and made sure that it was tight against the brick faces. Then I put the 4ft level on it and set about smacking various spots with the big orange deadblow hammer to get it level. Unfortunately, the surface area of the slab and the volume of the mortar under there seemed to render my hammer useless. The slab wasn't moving. Fearing that the mortar was drying and I might end up with a crooked slab, I went to the next bigger hammer at my disposal...me. I used the level to find the high spot and then I jumped up and down on thethat spot until it came down...move the level...jump up and down...level...jump...repeat.
In the end, it was just about perfectly level in all directions and completely solid...no rocking of any kind.
I went outside and used a block of wood to push the 4" pipe for the Outside Air Kit back into the house (I had pushed it out so it wouldn't obstruct the installation of the slab) and then I installed the flexible feed tube which will connect to the beack of the stove. I also installed the power outlet. I'm not 100% sure that the outlet won't melt, but I figure I'll give it a try. It's in a solidly grounded metal box so the risk is low and I can always put a metal blank cover on it later if it proves problematic.
Since ceiling fans seem to be an important component of a well rounded woodstove heating system, I figure these are germane to the story as well. Painted the ceiling and added 2 new 52" fans this week as well.
Riding high from my success with the slab, I decided to start painting the walls last night as well. Wife came home and joined in the fun.
I'm sure some folks are cringing at the idea of painting over the knotty pine in this room, but we've been looking at it for alot of years and we're ready for a change. On top of that, I'll be installing a hardwood floor in the next couple of weeks and it just seems like too much wood...like wearing blue jeans, a denim shirt, and a denim jacket...sometimes, its just too much of a good thing. We didn't want the room to feel like the inside of a shipping crate.