What to do?

1/19/08 Saturday
So now I need advice on the right way to do things. I emailed Eric and he asked me to make a list of questions he could show some friends who may have the experience to answer. I think I’ll post this on the blog for it will contain pictures to help you get a better idea. Don called as I was heading for Bill’s fireplace to see what he had. Don let me know that Tractor Supply carries woodstoves so they might carry what I need. Bill wasn’t in so his secretary called him and handed me the phone. Bill said he no longer carried thimbles and stuff but he had one somewhere in the back. He asked me to write down what I needed and leave a number so he could call back. I’m still trying to figure out what I need so that’s difficult. The thimble I know so I wrote that and tried to describe the bottom part I don’t know the name for. He didn’t call back.

Tractor Supply does have woodstove stuff and in fact it just went on sale as they are clearing stock for the upcoming spring season. There is one of those kits like Lowe’s has but it was $250. Neither kit has the five 36” lengths I need to get up over the top of the roof included. The ones at Tractor Supply cost $76.00 each. Ouch. Times five that is $380.00. There was one out of the box I could look at. They are stainless steel units with an insulated center pipe surrounded by another one with an inch or so air space between the two. Unfortunately my memory can’t recall what I saw at Lowe’s so we will go back there this morning.

One of my questions is “Do I need something this nice?”. I called the place in Odessa suggested by a friend in the comment section yesterday. The lady flat out said they were “Ten times the cost of Lowe’s”. “OK…Thank you” I said after she also informed me they do not stock this stuff but would be glad to order it. There is no question I want to put the good stuff through the wall but I wonder about the need to use it all the way to the top.







Everyone (including Tractor Supply) carries the single wall snap together stove pipe so I have to believe it’s not totally unsafe. I’ll need to see if there is something that transitions the insulated double wall stuff, or what ever it was Lowe’s has, to the single wall pipe. (You can see what I had before in the top of the picture) That would be much less expensive. There has been two hundred dollars donated through the PayPal button to the right for this need. Thank you very much guys. Plus we have a couple of hundred bucks to use so I would like to do it all within that budget. Bob at Christmas in Action will donate some siding and perhaps other building material so that will help.







Here’s another question. What is the best way to repair the wall itself? Bob has some cement based siding that would be very resistant to heat. Unfortunately I don’t have a clue about it. Would love your input on this folks.

Could I just screw in a short piece of 2X4 where the stud was burned or do I need to replace the whole thing. That would require taking off a ton of siding. Jay had suggested I reside the whole side of the house and I think Bob could supply that much siding. But that becomes a major project that I can’t do by myself and it’s winter so it’s probably not workable. Besides we plan on residing the entire house as that is desperately needed with the rot in various places. A project for next year or whenever it works out.

The drywall repair I think I can handle.

That’s it for now. We are heading into town where we will look at and perhaps take pictures of the Lowe’s stuff as well as buy groceries. Can’t make that drive without getting more than one task done.