When it comes to our houses, we sometimes have to make difficult choices. These aren’t life or death decisions, but they do effect our environment, how we live, change and impact on the places we call home.
In some ways it’s a little easier for me. Most of the work at No 19 I do myself and this means that when the situation changes (and it almost always does) I can stop what I’m doing, rethink, and change my plans accordingly.
My mother is an amazing woman who’s had a lot to deal with in recent years. I’ve seen a strength in her I never knew existed. Like many of us, her home is her anchor: it’s her security. The house she lives in has kept her together at times when everything else feels like it’s falling apart.
Although she may be strong and is happy to bake a cake, she’s not the type of woman to pick up a hammer, she’s not a DIYer, and she happily admits that she doesn’t like change. So when the idea of putting a wood burning, multi fuel stove into her living room came up, saying she was sceptical would be an understatement!
Built in 1905, my mother’s house was sympathetically restored after being lived in by one owner up until the 1990s. Almost all the original features had been saved. And once decorated, it was filled with all the same kinds of objects I love to collect (I think I get my passion for flea markets and junk shops from my mother)
The stairs had their balustrade, the stained glass in the entrance hall had been repaired, and even the windows retained their original form and wooden frames.
When she and my stepfather bought the house, the front room fireplace had been blocked up with a gas fire which is something they would never use. So they had it carefully taken apart and they reinstalled an open fire.
This made the room. It was beautiful, warm and cozy. On cold winter evenings when the central heating wasn’t quite enough an open fire made the living room a place to be. However, over the years things changed.
My mother and stepfather had a sun room built onto the back of the house which joins the kitchen, overlooks the garden and is a warm and lovely room to spend time in. The living room carpet was removed and the wooden floors restored, which although looked beautiful, didn’t help with keeping that room warm. More recently since the price of electricity and gas has gone up so much, almost everyone I know has been cutting back and keeping their heating turned down.
The last time I came to stay with my mother was in December and the house was freezing! I couldn’t bear it and I was happy to have the hand knitted cashmere socks my mother's friend Jules gave me for Christmas. I think I'm just used to the heat that a wood burning stove provides, and maybe my complaining about the cold got my mother thinking about the possibility of having a stove herself.
I have a huge kitchen at No 19. This was originally the stable and has solid stone walls, no insulation and currently a broken cat flap thanks to Wolfie. The room used to be literally freezing until I moved a large wood burning stove in from the front of the house which totally changed my life. Now I can happily say that the kitchen is the heart of No 19 even during the coldest of north Bohemian winters.
While I was still in the UK last time we took a trip to a local town to visit Sandiacre Stoves, a specialist in our area. They not only sell stoves, fully install them in line with all the safety regulations, but they were so helpful that we were able to gain a much clearer idea as to what was possible in the space we had. (There's a link to Sandiacre Stoves at the end of this article)
Visiting a stove or fireplace specialist in England is what I call fun day out! I love fires and stoves. The place was absolutely lovely. It was a stylish shopfront adorned with all kinds of log baskets, coal buckets, lanterns and fireside accessories: basically everything you could possibly want to maintain your stove and make it look beautiful. They even have cast iron cookware! However, my mother was not the only one considering this heating option and there was going to be quite a wait.
Anyone who's read my previous articles probably knows how much I love fireplaces and how important I believe they are as focal points in rooms. After building my faux fireplace and chimney breast in the upstairs living room at No 19 this year, I sometimes wish I could have an actual stove in it... but I guess candles will do. Even though the room is nowhere near finished, I spend evenings in there by candlelight and often enjoy the warmth of the morning sun.
It just so happened that the day to install the stove was brought forward to a freezing cold, but beautifully sunny Friday, during the time I was staying in England. Sandiacre Stoves had called a few weeks earlier to say they’d had a cancellation and were happy to now do the installation well before summer.
This was great news for us as I had the feeling my mother was still a little apprehensive about going ahead with it, and let’s face it, once it’s in, there’s no going back. I was also happy to be there to see the work in progress as it was going to be quite a job which would apparently be completed the same day.
The doorbell rang at 8:15 sharp and by the time I’d boiled the kettle and made two teas and a coffee, dust sheets were already covering everything, the tools and dust extraction unit were in, and work had begun.
The team of three initially removed the original marble fireplace surround, carefully taking it apart, and putting it aside while they took out the cast iron fire and fireback, to make space for the new stove. The original brick wall at the back of the chimney which was going to be used as a feature was found to be in a bad condition, so they had to rebuilt using matching bricks.
A new flue to line the chimney had to be fitted, and the existing walls inside the fireplace needed to be strengthened, supported, and in places totally rebuilt. This was a huge job and I couldn’t believe it was going to be completed in one day. But the three of them worked together tirelessly throughout and I just couldn't believe how fast they were progressing.
5pm came and what had looked like a building site all day, suddenly became an amazing fireplace. And during the thirty minute tutorial about how to use and maintain our new stove, I couldn't help but marvel at what a fantastic fireplace had been created that cold, sunny Friday.
The brickwork was finished to look like it had always been there. The original marble fire surround sat against the wall framing the new stove, as if it had never been moved.
What was essentially a new focal point to the living room, sat happily amidst the current decor... and the moment the team from Sandiacre Stoves left, it was like they had never been here.
Sometimes we have to make choices and they're difficult to face because we're afraid of the outcome. But when the results are so good, you realize that change is sometimes not such a bad thing 🖤
If you're in the area, drop into Sandiacre Stoves, or just take a look at their webpage and Facebook in the links below: