Two Cats In The Yard, Life Used To Be So Hard, Now Everything Is Easy Cause Of You

   Who would have believed that the huge pile of lumber and Trex deck in the driveway would be almost completely gone? We can actually use the driveway now!
    This week Ed and Rick finished up the exterior decking and stairs. It's low on the list of priorities, but before final inspection, the stairs going up to the apartment will be completely re-worked and tied into the deck. In the meantime, it'll be a little tight walking into the garage.




   This portion of deck goes from the front side between the house and the garage, to the back deck. There are stairs on either side, one set that come up to the craft room door, then some that come down the back and to the garage entrance.

 
    I can't even tell you how nice it is to have stairs going up to the back door. No more entry ladders! And I can almost avoid walking in wet sand...almost. Of course the dog and cats don't want to go along with the program. Nonetheless, the amount of sand being tracked into the apartment has been greatly reduced. Even so, I could probably make sand sculptures with the amount of stuff coming in.

  Kendra doesn't make much of a mess. Oh, she sheds a little, and she's tough on the baseboards which she uses as a scratching post, but for the most part she's about as slow as you'd expect a 17 year old cat to be. She does enjoy a nice winter fire. She sat in front of our Hearthstone Tribute stove for about 20 minutes, staring at the fire like it was a TV. We love this stove. It's attractive, and efficient. Maybe a little too efficient for 700 square feet of living space. We have to be conservative in it's use or we roast ourselves out of the room!

 
 Mittens and Midnight have a different approach to the use of the stove. The stove makes a nice backdrop for the food bowl, which is, apparently, where Midnight spends the..er..bulk..of his time. It's never too difficult to tell which twin is which with these two. Just remember to lift with the legs and use proper body mechanics when picking up one's cat. At 22 lbs., he's a workout.

   We had originally planned to put a Hearthstone stove on both floors, but finally decided to go with the BIS Tradition CE woodburning zero clearance fireplace. It is a very efficient non-catalytic fireplace, that will provide plenty of heat for our needs. Of course, we have a furnace system in the event we need that, but wood will be our first choice.

   I found a local supplier who will also be doing the installation of both fireplaces. I have every confidence Ed could handle the job, but this is one of those things that MUST be done absolutely correctly. Ed started working on framing up the surround. Since we have a fireplace upstairs and down, getting both stovepipes up the chimney will take some careful planning.
    Ed decided to build the surround on a piece of plywood so he could adjust the location when the installer is here, then nail the surround to the wall when it is in the perfect location. How does he think of that!?

 We will have a 12" rise for a hearth to make the fireplace more visible. It also makes a nice place to sit. There will be step-back bookcases on either side, in the Craftsman style. A nice book...a cup of tea...does it get much better than that?