Rehab: The Wood-Burning Stove

Craigslist.

Craigslist is a complicated place.  So many negative connotations surround craigslist: dangerous, scammers,  scary.... ok there is some of that but I have found craigslist to be useful in this move.

We needed a wood burning stove.  Like many people in the suburbs I had no idea how to shop for or use a wood burning stove.  Why would I?   We had a furnace to heat all of our homes.   Once we had a fireplace but it was gas.   That's not to say I didn't want one.  Remember when I told you many people in my life were talking about homesteading and prepping?  Would you believe one very important part of those lifestyles is having a natural way to heat your home?   I also said that I wanted a fireplace and a wood burning stove and...I found a house that had one.  Well...it had had one and now I needed to find one to install.  

I visited Menards and Lowe's and Home Depot.   Big wood burning stoves that are new are EXPENSIVE!   Wow!   And they are not very pretty, in my opinion.  

The spot in the home that had the wood burner was lovely and I wanted to find a "lovely" wood burning stove to fit into it.

It had to be special and fit the overall look of the house. It had to be large enough so it wouldn't drown in the space for it and it needed to be modern-ish.

Here are some family friends sitting in the area for the wood burner.  It is not a small space.  

After not finding what I needed in the stores I turned to craigslist.  (side note: I looked up wood burning stoves today and found a couple of interesting stoves but someone decided to list "medical marijuana" and that is what filled my search.... see above note about craigslist connotations).  Would you believe there are a lot of collectors of old wood burning stoves in this area?  If you call them the sellers are very enthusiastic about there collections.  It made shopping for it fun but complicated because, again, I had NO idea what I was looking for, as far as heating and type goes.



I thought this style would be "neat" but not quite right for the space and a bit too large. This one had top cook plates.  I really liked this.  The price was right but it was so rusty and the wrong shape and size.


This one needed too much work and is the wrong look.

Good condition, right price, wrong style.





That is how a lot of them on craigslist are.   I spent a lot of time looking .   I found one that I really liked.  It was a wood burner from the civil war.  It was beautiful and full of potential.   Ok...I know what you are thinking....civil war???   Angela the house is not civil war looking.   You are right but it had fleur de lis, it was local and the man was so enthusiastic about it.  It was rusty but maybe could work.   It looked something like this:  





So Matt and I drove to see it about 35 minutes from the house.  Of course Matt had to come because this was a craigslist listing.....   We were greeted by a very fit 75 year old man.  He welcomed us into his home to show us his wood burner that heated his home.  He told us he feeds it every X number of hours and how much he loves wood heat.  He then showed us the wood burner.  It was too small.  :(   However he had dozens more!   "Come over here!", "Look at this one!", "How about this beauty?"  

Deep in the corner, hidden in the shadows, a black, solid shape caught my eye.   He said, "Oh that!   That's a 'Yodel'; best company for wood burners. It would be a great one to have and I just gave it a facelift."   He said he had just sold one similar but smaller and that this one was $700.   Yikes!   That's more than I wanted to spend.   It had the right look though.  He showed us all the really cool features of it.  Showed us how the doors slid open and how the engineers created the amazing gears and moving pieces to open and close the doors.  He showed us how he replaced this and that and painted it with something that will make it last for ever.   He pulled out the -original- owner's manual and told us it was made in the early 70's and a bit more.... "SHOOT!" We brought out Jeep and this thing was huge!   The man said, "No problem, it comes apart into many pieces. It'll fit."   He said we could have the pretty little civil war parlor burner too for $250 but I had no need for it so we declined.

Matt and I stepped away to chat.  We had brought $600 and he told me he brought the Jeep so we couldn't take anything home right away.... :-/   I didn't know that.  But Matt also liked it so we made an offer.   He accepted!   Yippee!  

He then proceeded to break it apart and lift this giant with very little effort and help Matt put it in our car.   Matt was shocked by this 75 year old man's strength but I guess if you are working with cast iron all the time you stay in shape......

We brought it home in the Jeep and brought it into the house.  And there it sat, unusable for a few weeks, until the chimney guys came to install it and clean out all 3 chimneys.

I loved it in the house.  It was perfect!  Not too big and not too small.   Not too old and not too modern.   There was nothing gaudy and we could open it to view the fire or leave it closed while it heated all night.  Done!



2 weeks later the chimney sweeps came and began installing.  If you are local I recommend No-Mess Chimney Sweeps.  They were professional, knowledgeable and super friendly.   They told us all about how well built the fireplaces in the house were and the excellent craftsmanship that went into building them.  This is the owner's son.  They thought the wood burner was "very cool".  They didn't often install these styles but explained that the old ones were solid and last forever.  He also told us, after ready the manual, it can hold up to 27# of wood.

Installed. The kids put magnets allover it for fun.  The middle magnet is a thermometer to help maintain the right temperature.

. 

 They told us both fireplaces were custom made and very expensive - not your "run-of-the-mill" they said.   They even showed us the mason's mark on the brick inside the upstairs fireplace. 
Downstairs they explained to us that the holes in the top and bottom and around the basement were heating vents that will release the hot air when this fireplace is being used.   Cool!


I have one thing to add to this.  I love my wood burning stove.  It is so cozy when it is lit and it certainly heats the main floor and much of the upstairs.  If we loose heat or electricity for any reason we can still stay warm!  I can add a pot to the top and boil water to add to the air and I can burn LOTS OF STUFF!  ;)   There is a learning curve when using a wood burning stove.  I'm still not sure I'm doing it right but I love to add wood to it and feel the fire.  Matt even bought a flame thrower to help ignite the fire.  Ask him about it, he LOVES to show it off.
But....they require a lot of attention.  Every few hours we need to add wood.   I'm not complaining; I'm still learning.  

The Big Rehab- the Beginning

In February we closed on the house and the rehab began.   Like bees in a honey hive we began ravaging the house.

First I feel the need to tell you that I have never rehabbed a house. Though it has been a dream of mine.  I love those shows; couples working together to tear apart a house and put it back together gleaming, sparkling, and dreamy.  I sometimes binge watch them. Maybe you can relate.

The thing about those shows though is they always seem to have unlimited amounts of money. Not sure how.  Of course many of them are rehabbing to turn over and sell but where do they get the money.    Some set a budget and insist on sticking to it and they often show the homeowners doing a lot of work themselves.   This gave me confidence that we could do it too!   We had our budget and we knew what we had to do first.  If there was extra $$$$ we would look at getting other things done too.  

Here was our list of repairs in no particular order:
Carpet
Cleaning
Paint
Repair holes in ceiling
Replace rusty can lights
Buy a wood-burning stove
Clean the bricks stained and damaged by the leaky roof
Repair the roof and hope the rest is good - dun dun daaaaah (later)
Replace the stovetop and oven
Purchase a new refrigerator and washer and dryer
Install a new water heater (the old one was no good anymore)
Repair jimmy-rigged electric box
Get a chimney sweep to clean all three chimneys and install the wood-burning stove
Replace broken windows
Replace all the locks to all 5 outside doors
Replace all brass door handles in the house
Replace all leaking faucets
Replace all the cabinet knobs (they were crusty wooden ones that looked ancient)
Clean some more
Install a master bathroom door
Replace the shower heads (current ones leaked and were crusted with calcium)
Install a water softener
Repair the hydronic radiant heat and replace broken pumps
Install a garage door opener on 2nd door (not sure why they didn't do that)
Replace the strange light fixtures in the bedrooms or paint them so they don't stand out
Replace the strange light fixtures in the bathrooms
Repair or replace the broken toilet
Make a closet for Alexis' bedroom
Repair the driveway with more gravel
Buy a machine to help us with the driveway - for plowing, grading and spreading gravel - 4-wheeler?
Repair deck off master bedroom
Install closet systems in each of the closets (I took the stuff I bought for our other house)
Find out if the pool can be salvaged
Re-caulk all the bathrooms and kitchen (all the caulk was either missing or falling out)
Clean and/or re-stain the exterior of the house
Repair the exterior deck
Repair the screened-in porch
Repair cabinet under kitchen sink
Lay brick on the outside stairs going to the back of the house (20 year project never finished)





Here is the list of "if there is money left"
Replace heater in the garage (if there is money)
Install the new stovetop but first
Find a granite company to cut the old island to fit where the current cooktop is and cut a new larger island with a hole for the new cooktop
Move gas-line to the island for the new cooktop (can we do that with the cement floors?)
Decide whether or not to make her a bathroom out of the creepy room with the misaligned toilet under the fountain
Repair the fountain
Install gutters
Blacktop driveway
Clean up dead trees

There was more but I cannot think of it at the moment.  Of course as we got "this" done then "that" would need to be done.  And we discovered things that we didn't expect to have to do also....

Side note: I mentioned Matt and I have purchased several homes in our marriage.  

One of those was preexisting the other 2 we built.  

But none of them needed work.   Yes, the new homes needed painting 

but it was new and if we couldn't paint right away no big deal.  

We did purchased a foreclosure in 2008, as an rental investment.  

It needed some work but very little compared to this one.  Matt did most 

of the work with my help and we got it done in about a month.

We still own the two houses we built and rent them out 

also so we are not unfamiliar with fixing up houses (most tenants 

don't give a hoot about something that is not theirs and 

repairs and cleanup are always necessary) but we had 

no experience compared to what we were about to take on. 

First things first.  The Clean Up. 

We knew before we could move in we needed to clean and replace the carpets but before the installation of the new carpets we wanted to paint the house so the tear up began.

The girls and I began in the main room.  The carpet had to go!  Mask and gloves on we began cutting and rolling up that disgusting carpet and padding.   This carpet looks brown in the picture.   In areas that were not well used it was a very light cream. You would not believe the stains everywhere.  

Sidenote - Early in our marriage I learned what a "clean freak" Matt is.  I also learned to appreciate that fact.  I grew up in a very clean house but I admit I am not nearly as tidy as Matt and can tolerate much more clutter than he can.  He insisted we buy a carpet cleaner many years ago so that anytime there is a stain on the carpet we can clean it really well or if the carpets started to look dingy Matt would pull out the carpet cleaner and clean the whole house.   What a difference that made.  Our carpets always look good!  

So pulling up this carpet and seeing what a 10-20 year old carpet that may or may not ever have been clean made me appreciate Matt's cleanliness even more.   This carpet was GROSS!

All of the girls were excited and anxious to help us.  I suppose there is some appeal to tearing apart a house.  

Even Misty got involved licking and kissing us because we were on her level. 

Once the family room was done and that carpet was out we moved to the green room, or the soon-to-be Sami's bedroom with purple carpet. 

Next up - Mandi's room.  You can see the nastiness on this carpet.   And what's with the shelf? 

Mandi's room without the carpet. 

Do you know how hard it is to rip carpet off of stairs?   There were SO many staples in each of the stairs I was glad I had leather gloves.  And, a lovely accent, each step has a piece of wood under the lip to remove and label so we could replace them.   I hope I never have to remove stair carpet again!











This is the fireplace in the main family room.  We knew there was a leak in the ceiling and could see the water that leaked in as the snow melted.  I believe this started happening just before we moved in because I imagine if it had been happening for years the staining would have been much worse.  The water dripped down the wooden beams picking up stain from the wood and dripped onto the bricks where the stain was absorbed in the brick.  I wasn't pretty and looked gross. I researched how to clean brick.  Some suggested rather hefty acids but in  the end I bought a steam cleaner and it cleaned it up beautifully.  In fact that steam cleaner came in handy for much of the clean up around the house!

Betty (MIL) was a huge help with cleaning.  She cleaned a ton of areas. 

Walls needed spackle and washing before we could paint. Thanks Tim!

I am so grateful to my friends and family that offered to help us with this monumental task.  We could not have gotten as much done as we did in the short amount of time without them.  

Thanks Angelique!

Lunch time without a table. 

These two helped paint Mandi's room.  Here they are sitting where the wood-burning stove will go.  

Angelique and Micah, my mom and dad (Ann Marie and Bob) and my in-laws Betty and Forest all brought food and munchies for everyone to eat and snack on.   I cannot thank them enough for that. 

Kristen and Tim working hard cleaning walls.

Shop vacs are a necessity for rehabs. 

With all the help we received from our friends and family cleaning got done really fast.   The house was already starting to smile and smell better.  It's amazing was a group of people can get done and I am so so so grateful for all the help we received.   Thank you to you all.