Cold weather

I miss heating with a wood stove. I miss the smell of a wood fire in the home. I miss cutting wood. In the forest, I miss that adrenaline rush of planning and felling a tree. I miss splitting wood, especially by hand. Each strike of the maul is like a mini battle of will. Can I convince my body to brutally and precisely repeatedly strike the log until it surrenders.  I miss stacking wood into long rows neatly ready for curing. I miss seeing the stacks of wood, so similar to a fully stocked larder, ready to heat our home.

It is cold here in Berkeley this morning. Not cold like it is in the rest of the United States. The sun will rise, it will bask into our front room and warm our poorly insulated home. By 9:30 am it will be very comfortable. Right now at 5:50 am I am cold. We don't have a real heating source. We could plug in some electric oil filled heaters.


Last time we did that it cost us a fortune on the next electricity bill--worst of all it wasn't really that much warmer.

We have an awesome woodstove


but I'd need to reline the chimney. I have done it before when we lived in Missouri. The main obstacle is there is no place to efficiently get wood. Plus the lining materials to do the job are about $700.

My Berkeley solution will be solar/radiant heat. I just acquired the final expensive part for our solar thermal system. I needed the pump, it had to be strong enough to lift my solar storage water to the peak of our roof. I couldn't afford to buy one since they are about $700. I was gifted two of them, one as back-up. They were from a commercial radiant heat removal. The plumber was going to throw them away.

Now I just need to finish the kitchen so I can install our solar heating system.

Kitchen remodel ensues...

I had to tear up the rotten flooring down to the joists.

I put in new sub-floor. The eventual final finish will be cork. 

This sub-floor was salvageable it just smells like La Brea tar pits. I scraped off the old tiles and tar to a level surface. 

I am starting to put sheet rock back on the ceiling. I insulated the exposed attic space and wired cans for the proposed lighting over the dining table and cutting board island. 

These three light cans will center on the table. See my crazy foam board and foam spray combination insulating?

This the wall behind the refrigerator, wall-oven, and pantry shelves

I'll plaster this back nice when I finish out the rest of the room. 

We got a Christmas tree the other day.

And, Georgi is a monkey girl.