Well, we decided to step back and get away from construction for awhile. I'm afraid I was burning out from the stress of constantly spending every waking minute of my spare time (that time away from my regular job) working on this place. Debra was catching on to the fact that I was starting to adopt a "that's close enough" attitude with my work on the house, and you could start to see it in my attention to detail. That's definitely not my style, so once it was pointed out to me I agreed, regardless of how much we have to do we needed to have some "us" time away from construction. Well, now that the holidays are over, I need to get myself motivated to get at it again. We started by getting our fireproof stairs installed in the garage so we could access the attic storage area. This in turn will allow us to start sorting boxes in the basement and clearing that space out. I really hate cutting large holes in my house. It seems to have a permanency that makes me really really uncomfortable. There were numerous measurements and double checking measurements to be certain that great gaping hole in the garage ceiling was going to be a perfect fit. Everything slid in perfectly, so the extra effort was worth it.
Settling into the house to actually live here now really doesn't help my motivation either. It's just too comfortable and easy to take a break and have a snack, or step over to the computer to see what the latest is on Facebook, etc. Those habits I really need to work hard to overcome.
We are especially enjoying our fireplace now. Currently we are experiencing record or near record low temperatures here in Wisconsin. The last couple of nights have been -25 degrees with wind chills of between 40 and 60 below zero. Our super insulated house and our high efficiency fireplace will keep the whole upper living area between 70 and 74 degrees without any help from our geothermal system. I have a gas powered log splitter that I use for larger amounts of firewood, but the temperature was so cold earlier this week that I could not get it started. The alternative was to do it the way I used to on the farm.
 |
| These stairs have a fireproof barrier on the outside and a fusible gasket around the opening. Should a fire break out in the garage, the gasket will melt and seal the opening, while the fireproof outer layer holds back the flames. None of our big box stores carried anything like this, so it had to be special ordered. |
 | ||
| When technology and/or automation fail, I do it like my father taught me and pick up the 8 pound Hammer of Thor, and get it done. This will keep our fireplace fed for quite awhile. |
 | |
| I had a friend take this picture for me. This shows more of how our Deltec blends with nature. The house sits right at the edge of the ridge line, so the view out all those windows is something to behold. |
