What’s not to love about making a project using just scraps left over from construction?
This slightly unsightly woodpile has greeted us and our guests at the front of the house for over a year now. Even though we have oodles of firewood for our thermal mass fireplace and some beautiful woodsheds,
we are still using the construction scraps from our house and from the house next door and there is a dearth of dry places to store this haphazard-looking pile of scraps in a convenient location.
Add to that a garbage can, some recycling bins, and an extension cord, and we don’t have a very attractive entry area to greet us and our guests.
D decided to build a wood storage bin. We had tons of 1.5″ strips of cedar that were cut off the edges of the post cladding, and they were already mostly stained, so that is our finish.
In the miscellaneous lumber pile, he located enough plywood, 2×4, 1×4, and 2×6 to build this big woodbox/garbage bin. We’ll cover the lid with the same copper penny steel roofing as on the house.
Isn’t it lovely?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good one D. Hide the wood in plain sight.
Re: Picture #1: there’s more than just the woodpile that’s unsightly.
Thank you both for allowing us to travel along on your incredible journey. I love checking in from time to time to see what’s up and explore some of the other blogs you have posted. My question is on your fireplace. How is that working out ? Did you ever consider the finish style, Tulikivi? Was your fire place installed by a local contractor, and is the foundation for your fireplace any different with the extra weight?
Hi, John
The Tulikivi is essentially the same thing, but I believe it is faced with ceramic to hold the heat and let it slowly radiate over hours. We didn’t really look into Tulikivi kits, once we found this one. Some observations, now that we have lived with it for a couple of years:
The “pizza oven” is mis-named. It only achieves a temperature of about 250 degrees, so is useless for real baking – we rise bread and heat our dinner plates mostly. Not worth the extra cost.
Because we wanted the fireplace in a central location, we chose to have glass doors on both sides. I think that we made the right decision for our circumstances, but that means that there are about 6 square feet of surface area that doesn’t act as a thermal sink, because it’s glass, not stone.
We light the fire twice a day, which does not provide sufficient heat in the house in the coldest months. I think it’s rated for about 1000 square feet, and our house is about 2400 all together, although the main floor is close to 1100.
The kit and masonry was installed by a local stonemason. He was the only one who had the confidence to install the kit, even though he hadn’t worked with that model before. It comes with good instructions, and fits together like a puzzle.
We had to design the footings specifically for this massive weight. The total height of masonry, from the footings/crawl space to the chimney sticking out of the roof, is about 40 feet, with the top 15 feet only 18″ square.
Overall, we are happy with our masonry mass heater. It burns cleanly and offers the most cozy atmosphere. It’s truly the heart of our home.