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Tuesday 15th 46F/8C and heavily overcast again. Up at 5am. It is 65F/18C upstairs this morning. All thanks to the wood stove and only three, split logs yesterday evening. 58F/14C in the kitchen. I closed the intermediate doors overnight. So the heat from the stove in the lounge could no longer reach the kitchen.
The soapstone cladding on the stove has been a revelation. It takes time to get hot but goes on giving out lots of heat long after the stove has gone out. It was well worth the extra expense apart from making the stove look "pretty."
It is very bad form to fill a stove and turn it down to burn overnight. Which causes particles, smoke and toxic gases. The soapstone allows me to leave the stove burning down to ash but then it keeps on giving. It is not free heat. Because it has to come from the wood fuel. What it provides is the equivalent of a much longer [clean] burn much later into the night.
Much lower temperatures are forecast for the coming days. Down to almost freezing during the day. Recent record mild temperatures have been in my favour. The real test of the stove will come when I have to be at the museum. I need to light the stove in the early morning to allow it to keep the house warm while I cannot be there to add more logs.
Just another walk to the lanes. With my hood up a lot of the time. To combat the cold, easterly breeze. It hasn't even turned cold yet!
10.00 I primed the wall first. Then mixed some cement render and filled the top recesses of the wall. Plus a few hollows lower down.
13.30 Very dark overcast. I am about to complete the hall tile grouting. Not much to do. It looks fine now that the pale grey grout has dried back.
It is too dark to capture the tiles by natural light.
Flash and LED lights aren't true to colour.
I'm still undecided about door thresholds. If I tiled under the doors it would need tile cutting and leave a gap for draughts. The sharply cut edges would always show. While timber thresholds offer a potential tripping bar but would help to seal the doors in winter.
The bare edges of the tiles must be protected from foot traffic. I am leaning towards plain [flat] wooden thresholds and simple draught flaps. No hurdle to trip over but they still do the job.
Luckily I found enough hardwood for both thresholds. I shall bed them on tile cement and grout between them and the hall tiles later. These flat, wooden boards will protect the edges of the tiles by standing slightly proud. So that footfalls [and the eye] roll effortlessly over them.
17.00 Lit the stove. With the better kindling.
18.30 Dinner will be cheese on toast with tomatoes and mushrooms. Followed by tomato soup and a bread roll.
And so it was. I have the proof! 🙄
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