It's taken quite a while to wrap up the finish on my stove, but I am finally done! While I was waiting for my stone to arrive we tackled a little bit of insulating and window covering. I had a bathroom exhaust fan that was ducted in such a way that cold winds from the north would blow back through the exhaust and dump into the bathroom. Also our main living area has LOTS of windows. After reading several threads on here and trying to find some reasonably priced cellular shades with side tracks, we ended up making some DIY window quilts out of Reflectix and quilt batting. We were able to do the entire house for less than $400, where cellular shades would have been $4000. I also added some of the shrink film kits to 2 of the older windows we had in bedroom that seem to be the colder spots in the house.
My first time laying tile went pretty well. I was able to borrow a nice tile saw from a friend and knocked it out in a day.
I am burning pretty continuously now and getting more comfortable with the stove. I do find that if I close my damper fully to maximize heat and burn times overnight I end up with a little too many coals to get a full reload in the morning. My wood is very dry pine and pinon at 8% and 15% respectively. I am wondering if the altitude plays a role here. My house is at 8800' of elevation and it may be that as the load burns down secondary air when fully closed is just not enough to get a complete burn. Has anyone else at high elevation had to leave their damper open slightly?
For now we are going to stay with the single stove downstairs as we seem to be able to keep the upstairs warm enough, but it will be interesting to see how this works through the coldest parts of winter (well below 0F at some point), so an upstairs stove is not completely off the table yet.
Thanks again for all the great resources.
My first time laying tile went pretty well. I was able to borrow a nice tile saw from a friend and knocked it out in a day.
I am burning pretty continuously now and getting more comfortable with the stove. I do find that if I close my damper fully to maximize heat and burn times overnight I end up with a little too many coals to get a full reload in the morning. My wood is very dry pine and pinon at 8% and 15% respectively. I am wondering if the altitude plays a role here. My house is at 8800' of elevation and it may be that as the load burns down secondary air when fully closed is just not enough to get a complete burn. Has anyone else at high elevation had to leave their damper open slightly?
For now we are going to stay with the single stove downstairs as we seem to be able to keep the upstairs warm enough, but it will be interesting to see how this works through the coldest parts of winter (well below 0F at some point), so an upstairs stove is not completely off the table yet.
Thanks again for all the great resources.
