At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Speaking of scraps and such, we have a huge mess around the yard. We are planning to hire an excavating contractor to take down some trees, move dirt, put down some topsoil and do the final grading. The job is just too big for my little tractor. Plus, I need to bring down some trees anyway in order to make room for the grading work behind the house. Before bringing in the excavator, we need to do something with the debris in the front yard, the remnants of the sand pile, and 3 pallets of brick.

This evening I hitched the trailer to the truck and parked it in the front yard in preparation for loading and hauling off some debris. Some of the scrap boards are 4 ft long and I hate to throw them away. However, they've been outside all winter and have some mildew on them. I'm afraid of bringing any of these scraps inside the house so I'm leaning toward taking them to the dump. It hurts my pocketbook to think about it but I'm just tired of seeing piles of trash around the place.

 

[scoutcub]

Obed -

Amazing how the scraps pile up everywhere in the yard, isn't it?
When we bought a new (never sold) house in MI in 2001, it has no grass or landscaping, which I eagerly accepted as a "sweat equity project" to put everything in place. At the time I only owned a super garden tractor with a small box blade and loader. I started razing the yard prepping it for topsoil, and kept running into scrap lumber, shingles, pallet strapping, nails, etc. etc. It turned into a major project where I scraped the whole yard down around 2-3", and made a mound in the back yard right along the property line, then planted trees on it. What a pain!

In one of your garage pics I saw a small pile of firewood...I would caution you that (this winter) I had the same size small pile, and somehow 4 mice got into the garage and moved into the woodpile....they love them!

Are there enough scrap boards to make a small woodshed outside?

Frank

 

[jinman]

Obed, in your first picture, I see a clearing in the woods beside your driveway. There's a dark spot in the middle. Is this a former burn pile? In the spring, that might be a good place to pile all your scraps and have a "weiner roast." I burned about 4 cubic yards of scrap piles from my house when I built it and kept some of the nicer scrap for projects. Last year, I burned a couple of more yards of scrap materials that was what was left of some of that stuff I'd saved. I'll never use all those scraps. As much as I hate to throw stuff away, sometimes you just have to do it. With a little work, your place will be neat, clean, and even more beautiful.:thumbsup:

 

[woodlandfarms]

Didn't you us those cardboard boxes to layout your kitchen? I remember seeing pix of that...

 

[Obed]

Are there enough scrap boards to make a small woodshed outside?

Frank

Frank,
I hadn't thought about that but that's not a bad idea. There might be enough to do that. The problem is that I don't really want to store any mildewy lumber in the basement for obvious reasons. However, building a woodshed out of mildewy lumber sounds like a great use for it. I have a bunch of scrap OSB that I would never use inside the house.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Obed, in your first picture, I see a clearing in the woods beside your driveway. There's a dark spot in the middle. Is this a former burn pile? In the spring, that might be a good place to pile all your scraps and have a "weiner roast."

Jim,
Yes, that's the former burn pile in the garden area. However, I don't want to burn lumber with nails over there. Without the nails, I'd burn the scraps outside. Because of the nails, I'll haul the scraps to the dump.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Didn't you us those cardboard boxes to layout your kitchen? I remember seeing pix of that...

Carl,
You have a good memory. Some of those cardboard boxes could have been used by my wife to mock up the kitchen and bar.
Obed

 

[Obed]

We have kept the fireplace burning for the past 24 hours. It is keeping the house temp around 70 degrees. Last night I loaded the fireplace full and still had coals this morning.

We are trying to learn how to use the FP. We have to be very careful about getting the house smokey. Smoke wants to leave the fireplace when you open the glass doors, especially if the left door is opened. I tried cracking a LR window before opening the glass doors and that seemed to help. Our house may be so airtight that with the glass doors open, the fire can't suck air up the chimney so the smoke comes into the room. We can't open the glass door on the left at all because of the smoke so we have to load firewood through the right door only - that's a bit of a pain.

 

[Obed]

Obed, glad to see a fire going in your FP. I've never had a problem with the glass on my doors and I've had hot, hot fires going (but you never can be too cautious). Keep the ashes cleaned out on a regular basis and you will notice a huge difference in heat output. Do be careful with the ashes though, I've seen hot ember 2-3 days after my fire was "out".

I am still concerned that the FP is not getting enough combustion air. With the ACC (Automatic Combustion Control) wide open, the living room didn't get warmer than 72 degrees with an outdoor temp of 50 degrees. I would think the FP ought to be able to heat the room with the glass doors shut until the room would be uncomfortably warm. I'm concerned that the FP won't put out enough heat when the outdoor temps are in the 20s. If I crack open the glass doors, the flames immediately get bigger. The fireplace people are supposed to come out again next week to have a look.

Jonathan,
How hot will your fireplace make your LR or den with the doors closed? Can you get a "roaring" fire with the doors closed? We don't seem to be able to get a "roaring" fire with the doors closed.
Obed

 

[mikefromnh]

I am still concerned that the FP is not getting enough combustion air. With the ACC (Automatic Combustion Control) wide open, the living room didn't get warmer than 72 degrees with an outdoor temp of 50 degrees. I would think the FP ought to be able to heat the room with the glass doors shut until the room would be uncomfortably warm. I'm concerned that the FP won't put out enough heat when the outdoor temps are in the 20s.
Obed

Something seems wrong. I know its a fireplace insert, not a wood stove but a 20 degree temp differential does not sound very impressive.

My stove will keep our 3500 square foot house in the high 60's when it is 0 outside. The great room (900 square feet) is kept in the mid 70's. When you have good dry wood you should be able to shut the air down to almost nothing and have a strong fire.