Warm!

We had lots of things planned for this weekend, but shelved everything when we found out our wood stove was in. Although it's Texas, and not that cold compared to most of the rest of the country, we have had quite a few miserably cold, foggy breath days in the house. We were quite excited to have heat in the house, so naturally it was 80 degrees the day we picked it up. We drove to the store in t-shirts, with the air conditioning running in the truck.

We discovered that even in winter, it's difficult to find stovepipe and chimney pieces in Texas. We found everything we needed, but only after visiting several stores and buying an expensive five-piece kit from which we only needed two pieces. Why these things aren't sold separately I'll never know.

We spent the following day installing it, which went fairly smoothly since part of the chimney was already in place. By mid-afternoon the stove was burning, and just in time too, since a cold front came through and we're now looking at a couple of days of freezing rain. The warmth feels downright luxurious now. I'm already amazed at how well it works. Even though the stove is on the opposite end of the house, I got up this morning and the kitchen was even warm! Finally, it feels fairly civilized in here. Working at my desk without a hat and coat on is quite a novelty. The dogs seem to like it too, they're having trouble getting out of bed today. :)