In other news

We have received some of the last building materials we will need for some time. I went and ordered the last (hopefully) of the hardwood flooring for upstairs. As it turned out we were very unimpressed with the stuff we had gotten. Don't get me wrong it looks nice now that it is down but....It was laced with open face knots through out. The sample at the store had 2 little (maybe the size of a dime) knots in it. Well the stuff we got had tonnes of knots. Big small broken open faced. You name it. Faced with the need to get the floor down I sucked it up and installed it as it was. Kept telling myself it is an old home this is well suited to it. When down it looked pretty nice overall. Just hard on the bare feet if you were to catch it the wrong way. I still plan to fill the holes with a syringe of verathane when the warmer weather comes so that it will cure faster and better. Now I ordered less floor then needed on purpose because the last thing we wanted was to be stuck with extra that we couldn't return due to it being a custom order. So I needed another 80 sq feet. Fast forward to last weekend. I go and pick it up as it has come in. We get it home and open a box. There is not a knot to be found. The boards look like the ones on our main floor very much like the sample. We still have 2 boxes of the old stuff which is a good thing for 2 reasons. I now have proof of what we received aside from the flooring that is already laid. As well I'm going to need to mix the old with the new to get a more rustic look to finish the upstairs. Now in all of this I have made a few calls to the building center we bought the flooring from to complain. On 2 occasions I was told a date that I would be hearing back from someone. Both times nothing. Well finally after my third try now having the new flooring in hand to prove that the first round was the pits we got a call. I talked to the guy whom was very pleased at our patience and willingness to work with the stock. He told me he would call us back by the end of the day to give us some sort of compensation for our troubles. That was almost a week ago now. I called and left a message for him on Friday and still no word. I know anything could have happened like say a death in the family or something so we are trying to keep our cool. Will post more on this when I know more. The one advantage to all this though is the wood in the original batch had plenty of mixed species of maple including lots of birdseye pieces. We have many curly maple pieces on the main floor but few with birdseye.

In other wood news. We have gotten about 100 linear feet of the baseboard topper seen in the previous posts picture custom made. A guy at the local lumber yard made it for us at a reasonable rate. Took a little while as I gave it to him before Christmas. I must say it is very nice looking stock. We only need some 30 or so feet. I figured in case we need to repair or replace something in the future or choose to build off the back of the house that it would be good to have the extra stock. That way any other work will flow better with the house. I can't wait to install this stuff. My only problem is the old stuff takes on a nice honey hue when verathane is applied where the new is more blond in appearance. Hopefully it will darken up with time. It is in behind the couch in the picture below as well as the 4 boxes of flooring above it. I know the stairs look a little funny but we have cork under the treads to cut down on the noise for the time being as the treads are still not secured down yet.

Then there was fire

Well it has been a while since our last post. Many reasons for this. Mainly I found a job and I'm still trying to get used to it. I am working 4 on 3 off 12 on 12 off 2 weeks days and 2 weeks nights. Needless to say when the weekend arrives I am slightly pooped. Being on nights right now and having gotten somewhat used to the hours I still can't run a sander or table saw while Jenna is sleeping so. I surf the net and watch tv. So here I am to share some more pics and progress. Most importantly the fireplace is in. There was a whole saga surrounding the installation and the really decent gas plumber that came to run the pipe and turn it on. He came on the morning like he said he would and was able to tell me what he needed on my end to be done. Namely popping the hole through to the great outdoors. Told me he should be back by 2. He called at 4:30 and was sorry for the delay but still planning to come. He got here just after 5 and we got the pipe run stove in place and vented and turned on. All that went relatively smoothly. Then he went to turn it on. Welll the flame was far less then desirable. Looked very pathetic to be sure. Little blue flames no more then 1.5" high. Not a think like either of us expected. So we started to trouble shoot this problem. It was pretty cool. Me with minimal knowledge in gas learning plenty as we went. Was it a blockage in the line? Was it getting enough pressure? Was it the valve? there were a few theories going around. He stayed till almost 9 o'clock. We pulled a good portion of the stove apart and reassembled in the quest to solve the problem. Finally I had to send him home. I felt for him, it was late and we were not getting anywhere. I told him I would call him if I got to the bottom of the problem. If I required any warranty work from a gas fitter I would do all in my power to get him to be able to do it as he had been so helpful already. We left it going all night and it kept the house very warm but the flame looked terrible.

Fast forward to the next day. I get up call my friend that I bought the stove from. I had already called him the night before to see if there was something we had missed. Seemed there wasn't. Told him we didn't fix it and asked if he could contact someone to help figure it out. He agreed and was going to call me back. So I turned off the stove in case I needed to take it apart again. Well after an hour or so of reading and re reading the manual I decided to pull the stove apart further. I dig till I find the orifice and the venturi. Look at the gapping and of the venturi and have an erueka moment. It wasn't spaced for a gas stove but rather for a propane one. Excitedly I call my friend back and ask if this could be the problem. He figures it is and wants to check something and will call me back right away. At this point I happen to look down at the bill and notice that the model number includes a "P" in it and not a "G". All the lights go on. My friend at this point is feeling really bad as it was a keying error on him part. DOH. So he scrambles to find out what can be done on such short notice. (this is the Friday before Christmas and everything will be shut down for a little while) Finds out the Napoleon sells a retrofit kit to convert the unit back to NG but I'd need to drive to get it. Wanting this little bad boy running for christmas I agree to take the tour and get the part. 5 hours of driving (should only have taken 2 or so) in horrible traffic and I get the parts that take all of 15 minutes to install. Right off the top it fires up and the flame starts to look amazing within a few minutes. They have come a long ways with fireplaces in the last several year. I called the plumber whom happened to return my call while at Napoleon and had me ask the million dollar question. Why was the unit not marked anywhere that it was LP and not NG. Napoleon had no good answer for this. That aside though this little unit is very impressive. Dollars to Donuts it is a great deal. It is small but packs a decent punch perfect for our little house. We can't leave it running on high as it gets far to warm. I also worked it out. If left on high all the time it would use 360 cubic meters of gas in a month. That is as much as we used in Our 2 highest gas usage months last winter. Unless it was minus 20 all month long we wouldn't need to run it at high all month so we already will save over using the furnace which I have now turned off. Anyway here is a picture of it installed and running. You can also see some of our now restored baseboards as well as window frames in the living room. They look great to us.