Chapter 108...I Love Our New Wood Stove & Making Nightstands

Off Grid...Chapter 108 Since it is still cold out, Mike and I will be remodeling the inside of the house. We can be scary when we don't have projects going on so we make new ones I don't know if I told you this but Mike and I have never had luck picking paint colors That's why we usually end up with white..it may be boring but it's safe, lol. As you know from the last story we are got rid of the yellow in our bedroom closet. Now it's time to finish the rest of the room It wasn't a good shade of yellow. We are staying neutral but a little dark. Our new color for the bedroom is Moose Mousse. I have become the cut in queen and Mike does all the rolling. Here I am cutting in the ceiling. Mike doing the rolling. Yay...the yellow is almost gone Our bedroom is now very soothing. I bet we will sleep like babies I have been in contact with the manager at Lowe's. I am trying to find out if they will take the stove back since I really think it is a dud. There really is something wrong with it. They have to check into it because we bought it last August and it is beyond their normal return policy. I figured it can't hurt to try...Mike thinks I'm wasting my time. After a few days I got a call back from a different manager and she asked me for the serial # so she could call the manufacturer. She did that and called me back within an hour and said they would take the stove back for a full refund. Wow...I am so happy and impressed. I'm guessing there really was something wrong with the manufacturing of this stove. Lowe's doesn't even carry them anymore. So now Mike and I have to get into high gear. We want to get it back today so there is no trouble. First Mike gets on the roof and cuts off the caulking around our stove pipe. Back inside we loosen the pipe and take it out of the ceiling. After that Mike's covers our hole in the roof with plastic until we can get our new stove and install it. Next we take off the door to lighten it up and put it on the hand truck. We get it onto the patio and Mike brings down the tractor. We load the stove into the bucket and strap it in. Then Mike backs it up our drive and we load it onto the trailer. One hour from the phone call and we are on our way. We get to Lowe's and a nice young man offers to help Mike get it off the trailer I am very happy about that. Woo hoo...another headache gone. Now we just have to wait for our new stove to be delivered. Back at home. I measured out my boxes and put the string up for the grids in my garden.  Now...it's the long wait to plant Another day and another break in the weather. Woo hoo. Mike and I love when we can work outside. While I mow the back lawn, Mike washes our solar panels. They are really clean but Mike does it anyway. After that we decide to do a small job that we have just neglected to do. We have an electric line that runs from our generator to the underground water tank and spicket. We have been "talking" about burying it for some time. Today is the day and thankfully the digging went very well Mike starts out by digging up the grass so we can bury it. Once he gets it open I start to bury the electric wire and cover it. It almost looks like we didn't do anything at all.....and I don't have to move the wire around when I mow We are still waiting for our stove to be delivered. It is sitting in a warehouse about 2 hours from us and they keep delaying the delivery. You all know how Mike and I can't stand waiting for others so I called the warehouse and asked if we could pick it up rather than wait for them for another week. They said sure and gave me directions. Mike and I hooked up the trailer and headed down the mountain. Five hours later we are back home with our new wood stove....and man this one is heavy I am worried about getting it down to the house but you know Mike..."we can do it yes we can" So we unpack it, unload it, take off the door, take out the brick, and slowly get it into the tractor bucket. We strap it in and Mike backs it down the drive and we get it onto the hand truck on the patio.....and then into the house. Woo hoo, it's inside. Tomorrow is another day for getting it hooked up. Time to hook up and test our new stove. Mike goes on the roof and takes off the plastic in our hole. Then he helps me get the stove onto the tile. After that we reinstall the pipe and Mike seals it on the outside on the roof. Our stove is in place. Then Mike makes a bracket and screws it into our trusses. This will hold the wood stove pipe in place. Time to test it out. It is much bigger than our last stove. I hope it doesn't give us any grief. Mike takes his time and gets the fire started. Wow....it is so much better already. You can actually feel the heat coming off the stove...not like the other one Mike is thrilled and I am very happy about that. Another job complete. Here is our new stove with our little eco fan on top. This fan uses no electric and comes on from the heat of the stove. It blows the warm air around. I'm not really sure how great it is but it seems to help a little We are done We have been waiting for this stove so we can take a trip to NY. As you know....we went to NY over Easter and had a great time. Now back to the farm for the last few days of April 4-28 We have been trying to de clutter and clean up the inside of the house. Our bedroom furniture takes up a lot of space so Mike wants to get rid of our bulky nightstands. Luckily he has an idea We have an extra shelf from our armoire. Mike want sot cut it in half and use it for a floating nightstand. Sounds good to me. We picked up brackets while we were in NY. I help Mike attach the brackets and he screws the first table into our wall.  Ahh...much less bulky. We only use it for our lamps and a some water at night so they are perfect Hmm!!! maybe it's time to look for a new bedspread And I finally got a picture of the finished closet with he bead board doors on top. One room is done And our last day of April: Mike and I are back to the rocks We will get them done this year. I really really hate this job but we have a very long ditch line to do. Too bad there isn't a rock fairy who could help, lol. Back to our pile. Mike scoops it up and takes it to the ditch and then dumps it. While he does that, I stay behind and pick up the rock that has rolled off the pile and I throw it back onto the pile. Oh joy It keeps us young right, lol? We did 10 loads today. That's all for April. I hope you enjoyed this week's story. I will write again next week. Have a great week. See ya next time Lisa