The Woodstove!

We decided that after last winter we were NOT going to go through that much heating oil again and went out and bought ourselves the most efficient wood stove on the market. Our thinking was that we could always open a window if we were too hot. I wanted a flat top so I could cook on it if the power went out and we wanted one large enough to heat the entire house without having to stoke it every 4 hours.

So we bought the stove....

 

Then we chopped some wood...about 7 cords worth...

 

After we figured that we had enough wood for the winter we started to play with tiles.

First Pete had to center the wood stove to find out where the big hole had to go...

Next came the big hole...and nearly trying to kill off our neighbours getting the chimney liner installed!

 

Peter put in the electrical for the fan and ducting for an outside air intake..then the tiling began...

Still needs to be grouted, but the tile is up!

 In true form, one project ALWAYS leads to another in our house...so while Pete was busy laying tile, I was busy removing old lino. I call these photos "purging the 70's"

and I could not be happier! Bring on the tile! :)

 

The back yard and garden NOW!

It has been an incredible amount of work getting the yard into shape but I can honestly say that it is something that we can be proud of! My garden gained another 10 feet this year when we put the fence up along the back fence line and it has been growing like mad! Mental note for next year...thin the plants out!

I had to build A frame trelises as the squash plant were beginning to take over all my ground space! Hopefully they will do well.

I love the yellow of the squash flower. It's so pretty and bright.

 

We put up a berm along the fence line and are currently working at growing sweetpeas and berry bushes up it. The grass seed that we planted here has been growing like mad! I have to mow it twice a week!

 The yard is getting better and better all the time! Now to get rid of all the dandilions and clover and we'll be doing well!

:)

The Yard...continued...

The yard has been an ongoing project. Since the last post in 2011 we have trimmed down the tree in the front, dug out underneath the deck and laid bark mulch, put up fencing in the back, built a berm against the fence, extended the garden, laid grass seed where there was once blackberries and on and on it goes...

This is our friend Gord up in the tree after he had cut his way through to the top

 What the cleanup looked like....

We had to redo the drainage at the back to run along the property line. This box is where it ends and turns left along the fence line

It took a LONG time to get to the end of the fence but we finally made it!

We finally finished digging out on the right side of the house. Where you see the lid is our cleanout for our drain system

then we have been working on the front of the house and digging out the dirt from under the deck as it was up too high and allowing moisture to get under the siding.  We put weed cloth and finished it off with bark mulch

We got some REALLY cool old stuff from our friend Bren which just added to the look of the front of the house. 

 Looking better and better all the time!