Hard Work Pays Off!

We are in the process of finishing our basement, which as you may remember me talking about previously, is a bit difficult since we don't have our garage built yet...and therefore have no where else to store our "garagey-type things" like tools, tools, and more tools. But since it will be far less expensive to finish the basement, that is what we are doing first.

Although we have a geothermal heating/cooling system, we decided to look for a woodburning stove for the basement to help supplement the heat in the house. See...while the geothermal system keeps our house at a nice even temperature, you never feel that blast of dry heat that you get with a gas furnace or fireplace. And boy, do I miss that intense heat! So we started looking, and last winter we purchased a Buck stove, which is a woodburning stove that puts out heat like there's no tomorrow...and the one we found is actually the same model we had in our house when I was growing up. I was so excited to find it, especially remembering how toasty warm our house always was!!! Since that time, Barry has drawn up various different plans for the layout of the basement, and we have tweaked and re-worked, tweaked and re-worked...and re-worked again until we finally agreed on a plan that we hope will work.

Barry worked the rest of the winter and spring hanging drywall, priming, painting sample colors, cutting and hanging trim...and well, you get the idea. Things were really starting to take shape! But finally, it was time to get the stove set, which meant we had to decide on what we wanted for the hearth, mantle, and walls behind the stove. I like the look of field stone and river rock, so I was pretty sure we would be leaning that way. It took many of hours surfing Craig's List to find a deal on the amount of stone we would need, but true to form, Barry perservered and found some!

Of course, my Barry is the handiest of hubbies to have around, but he hasn't really done work like this before, so we called for reinforcements. My dad really likes to do stonework, and said he'd be happy to come for a weekend to help get it all laid. So on Friday, he and Taffy rolled in and the boys got right to work...

Just getting started...the "before" picture

Lookin' good, guys! (The board on the wall is where our mantle will go.)

My dad, cutting some stone
Trying to figure out the layout of the hearth...Putting the last piece down...Don't these guys do good work? We are really happy with the results! Once the mortar is dried, Barry has to go back and re-mortar and point the back wall to fill in the joints, and then set the stove. Of course, we also have to get the mantle installed, but all in good time. I'm just happy to have this part done, as it was quite labor intensive as well as time-consuming! I think I'll be having to pick out paint and carpet soon enough, don't you think?

Boy, I can't wait to have it all done so I can share pics! But I'm getting ahead of myself there...I need to get out and start chopping some wood, don't I? LOL!!!