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From heat to HEAT!

The new heating system (outdoor gassification wood boiler and radiant floor heating system) is nearly complete.   All winter, The Husband and Father-in-law have been keeping warm-ish with an old wood stove stuck in a corner of the basement with jury-rigged stovepipe.  Remember my consternation over their plan to use the virgin fireplace to keep warm?  It didn't happen.  The Husband decided a woodstove in the basement would be more practical.  It ain't pretty, but it is better than freezing:

Much like the door, they just happened to have an extra stove lying around. 

Bob says I've already shown you the control center for the radiant heat, but I think the other pictures didn't do it justice.   So, you gotta look at it again:

Part of me wants to live in the woods with just a wood stove and an open fireplace for heat.  And part of me likes regular, even heat throughout the whole house.  The latter me won.  It's the same me that likes non-rustic kitchens and bathrooms.  And DOESN'T WANT BEES, CHICKENS OR A GOAT.    But that's for another post.

Our Suburban Allergy

We are back home in the North Country again after our annual pilgrimage to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.   All it takes is one visit a year to confirm that we belong in the wilderness.   Don't get me wrong:  I love a good clearance rack at Kohl's as much as the next girl, but I just don't want to have to live around so many people in order to get it.  Since the hubs and I apparently have a severe allergy to suburbia, we went up to The Lake for an hour to bask in the...  nothingness of the country.  

This is the back yard of our log house.

This is the side yard of our log house.  Isn't the nothing, wonderful?

That, and Little G needed to STEP AWAY FROM THE VIDEO GAMES.  Nothing like some manual labor in the cold to set a boy right:

Our boy shoveling the walk at our house in town.  And then complaining, "my back is cracking!"

A break from logs

We're in Dee-Cee visiting Bob's sister and her enormous brood.  They obligingly piled on the snow in advance of our visit, just so we'd feel at home.  Gee, thanks.

It's been a low-key visit.  We went to the LEGO store today and let the wee ones go nuts, and we ate stacked pancakes for dinner in honor of Shrove Tuesday.  We had lunch with the Tongginator's family on Sunday and were dirty rotten church skippers.  We've also had to answer the question, "so, when are you moving in to your new house?" about 1459 times.  *SIGH*   I soooo wish I knew.  Maybe next winter.  Maybe not. 

We're heading back north tomorrow, and I'll start whipping The Husband into working on the house again. 
While I eat bon-bons and sit with my hair in curlers.   Life is good when you're the blogging wife of a hard-working husband.

Plus, we just can't hack all this snow!   We're going home.

Radiant Floor Heat

Plumbing-loving Bob has been fooling around with this nonsense lately:

I wish he'd get to work on something tricky.  This easy stuff is beneath him. 

HA!   I mean, do you get this craziness?  What is it?  The Hubs will only say: "radiant floor heat plumbing."   Gee.  Thanks.  Helpful, that.   Taciturn husband and vociferous wife are at an impasse.  Bloggy me wants DETAILS, baby!    Bottled-up-in-his-head Hubs finds:  "radiant floor heat plumbing" to be a sufficient explanation for this elaborate snaking of pipes in the basement of the log house.  

So, that's all you get for now, oh legion of readers.  Unless you rise up in protest and insist on a thorough explanation.  

Hello? 

*crickets*

Okay, maybe it's just me.   In any case, I'm thrilled to think that we're close to a functioning radiant heat system!   WOO-HOO!