Chestnuts roasting on an open..er, well-engineered, energy-efficient fire

How are we getting ready for the holidays? We're planning to have a quiet, travel-free, chaos-free holiday season, involving time off (for a change), some relaxing (new to us), and sitting by the new pellet stove. Oh, of course we'll be doing some work on the house (I for one can't sit still for more than a couple of hours).

The stove is getting installed today - supposedly - after the guys stood us up on Friday. That's OK, we didn't want a Friday-quality job anyways. But it is awfully annoying that the ONE time we have someone come & do some work instead of doing it ourselves, it's fraught with incompetence. The reason they didn't install it Friday was the guys in the truck "couldn't find the receipt with our address". Ummm, call the store and get the address? Or was that code for, "We're knocking off early today". Either way, ugh. It's gettin' cold and we want to sit by that fire.

Pellet stoves - and pellets - were a hot commodity in Maine this year. We had to whip out my old New York ways to get some attention at the stove shop, and then waited several months longer than expected for the stove. The company increased production by several hundred percent, but demand was truly insane. And then, people hoarded pellets - luckily we had some good advice and ordered ours very, very early - so we've got them now. Just waiting for the stove.

So, here's a photo of the fireplace in the living room, with the freshly-tiled hearth, as of this morning.

We'll see if I can post an after photo - with stove - here by tonight. (I'm writing this in the morning, and am oh-so-hopeful to have an after photo).

*** Breaking news: stove has been installed. It's just before noontime, and Ed & Chad just left, after installing the stove. Glad we didn't do it ourselves - apparently it weighed 500 lb! Barely fit through the door, too - they had to un-crate it in the driveway. Yes, those are flames in the stove! It didn't fit perfectly, so we'll probably do some adjustment - either moulding around the edge or chiseling out some brick, but, in the words of McLovin', "It's in!" ***

Now it will feel a lot like the holidays - and we've got snow predicted for early next week. Let it snow! Cocoa, stove, and nap. The ultimate holiday triple threat. Joy!

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