Slow but steady...in the middle of the masonry heater

This is some fabric I found a while back at Walmart, and it just goes with the house. I found the coordinating print below online. I plan to use them as curtains and whatnot in the kitchen.

My husband left his work hat on a peg, and I just thought it made a neat looking shot.

Here we are....actual progress on the house. You can see all the layers up to the subfloor here.

Time to start laying out the masonry heater components. He actually built one for our first home, but this plan is a little bit different. We were able to get the concrete supplies locally, but we ordered the iron pieces from North Stone Heat. We were very pleased with their customer service.

Take a step back to see the whole picture at this point.

These pictures didn't upload in my order, but here is one from just before he started putting the masonry heater up.

In these you can get a better idea of the space and layout since the subfloor is done. This is looking from the stairwell toward the kitchen and side door. There will be a wall just to the left of the door that comes out about 10 feet which will run behind the stove, refrigerator, and some of the cabinets. On the door-side of it, we plan to put shallow cabinets and a place where workboots and jackets can be stored. To the right of the door will be a small half-bath, the hot water heater, and the washer and dryer.

Before he could start putting the heater together, he had to make some slabs with these forms. We used Spargun 28 and 30, I believe. You can't see it here, but one of them has a hole in the center. It cracked the first time he poured it, but the second time he used a foam piece in the center, and it did just fine.

Starting to lay the firebrick. It's a really neat technique to laying these. You make a pretty runny mortar and then dip the bricks in it before sticking them in place.

In this one you can see where the chimney connects and how the channels are layed out.

These two inspect everything that goes into the house.

Looking at the fireplace from the front door. It's about 4 feet across and I think around 2 feet deep.

The front faces the living room. The top opening will be a bake oven. How cool is that! As the wife and not the one actually building it, I can say that. In this one you can see how the firebox has a slanted base to make the ash drain better.

Inspector #2 gave it her okay. You can see the color of the brick that will be on the outside. It's from Acme--Boston Red.

The butterfly was hanging out around the fireplace and let me get so close. There was something about the mortar it liked.

Here's our stove! This is not actually ours, but a picture I found of one just like it. My husband found one on Craigslist not far from here. I got online to research the company--It's a Country Charm electric stove from House of Webster. They made these modern stoves inside an 1875 cast iron design from the late 1970's until 2001. I spoke with the company and we can get any parts we need, so we went ahead and got it for a super deal today. The ventahood is hidden by what looks like warmers, and the coffee grinder is the clock/timer. The dials are hidden by the cast iron covers on the left side. It's not the smooth surface, self-cleaning model I was looking at, but we both fell in love with this one. And since I've never had a smooth surface one, I won't miss it. And it is sturdy, weighing around 375 lbs. I think it will be perfect in the house.

Anyway, there's a quick catch up on our progress--we're getting there slowly but surely!