The pieces are slowly coming together

(A quick sketch-up drawing of the fireplace and surrounding built-in)

The livingroom renovation has been on pause for the last month - at least that is the way it looks from the inside. There has been a fair amount of time spent with various trades and suppliers though - and things are coming together.

The two new windows have been ordered - they should be here by the end of the month. They are aluminum clad double casement windows with a fixed picture window on top. The fixed window has been spec’d in a way that the original stained glass windows will slide in from the inside. We are most pleased about this detail as we would not be replacing the windows if it meant giving up the stained glass.

Once the windows are in - I can frame the two new walls for the exterior walls, do the wiring and then insulate.


The zero clearance, woodburning fireplace has also arrived.

Our masonry guy stopped in this morning to discuss the firewood drawer. This is something I am really excited about. I grew up with a woodburning stove and one of the many childhood chores was bringing in the firewood. It was always a messy job - knocking off the snow and trudging through the house to stack it by the fireplace. We are going to be incorporating a spot under the hearth to store about 3 fires worth of wood. Instead of walking through the house, we are going to incorporate an open sided drawer that can be loaded from the outside and then accessed from the inside. This will involve cutting a hole in the exterior of the chimney (which happens to be at a perfect standing/loading height). The photo below shows the opening from the outside.



The photo below shows where it is on the inside. I am going to have a 1/4" thick steel frame made to fit inside the brick opening to support the weight. It will be 17-1/2" deep to extend the full depth of the chimney. I will need to make an insulated door to put in the steel frame - I think this will be a great solution.



I found some extra heavy duty, full extension drawer slides rated for 400lbs. They are 48" and should work perfectly for this. In the slides description, they make a note that these are not meant to support human weight... sorry Riley and Lucas (cause you know they will try!).



And last but not least - the quarter sawn white oak is starting to arrive too. Above is the 320 bd ft for the trim and the built-in cabinets around the fireplace.


Here is a quick shot showing some of the fantastic ray flecking - I can’t wait to get to the woodworking part of this project!





I also lucked out and was able to purchase a large pile of very wide quarter sawn white oak boards. All 15 are from the same tree and are quite spectacular. I placed my 12" Starrett on the floor for scale - they are all 8' long.