Last week myself and Alexandre, a local carpenter we hired on the recommendation of our friend Benoit, installed our new BIS Ultima wood burning fireplace in the living room, in the corner facing the patio doors. Marie and I chose this one as it is an energy efficient, heat circulating, close combustion fireplace - meaning over 86% efficiency. We raised it about six inches off the floor to make it a bit more accessible and built a frame which will hide the chimney around it and up to the top of the cathedral ceiling. The chimney, like the fireplace, is made in Quebec and composed of six sections of insulated stainless steel, tested to 2100 degrees F! Although this will not be our main source of heat we just couldn't built a house like ours and not have at least the ambiance of real wood burning! Erecting the chimney was a bit of a challenge as we had to squeeze into the narrow confines of the attic, around pipes and trusses and cut the hole for the chimney to pass through. I actually got enough courage up to climb onto the roof and help Alex caulk the storm collar, bringing my camera to get some views we wouldn't normally see from the house. The weather still continues to be warm and dry, though we did have one day of very heavy winds and rain - just enough to fill up the cabin water barrels. Next is a trip back to Montreal to see the kids - Christina will be 32 on the 23rd so we are off to Casselman, Ontario for the day. Amy is growing more beautiful every day and I received even more good news recently: Lara is 5 weeks pregnant! She and Jesse are very thrilled and we all wish her much happiness and a very healthy and successful pregnancy. gws
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| Bats in the belfry |
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| Venmar AVS Air Exchanger |
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| maybe a little more to the right... |
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| chimney and view to the east, from the roof |
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| Alexandre risking life and limb |
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| Another view to the east |
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| Installing propane lines |
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| early Friday morning, leaving the Domaine |
happy Mama Lara!
