Friday, December 25, 2009

Days of Intention - Day Six: Cozy and Cocoa


Scenario:

I have a dream. I want to cozy up in front of the fire. Ideally with the pups, a book or a good movie and snuggly cup of hot cocoa. I live in a house with two fireplaces, yet sadly I still haven't realized this vision. Why? Our house is 110 years old and the fireplaces are unlined.

What this means is we have really old mortar which could have cracks and crevices in it. Fire sparks + 110 year old wood is not a good thing. So we need to have them lined. But the pitch of the roof is very steep and requires scaffolding to be erected, so it would be a pretty costly process. We've looked into converting the fireplaces to gas but the house (built oh so long ago) is not to "code" so we would have to cut up the original mantels to do this. Something we are loathe to do.

We also need to get one of the chimney's capped. Right now it is open at the top and chimney swifts (small birds) nest in there in the Summer and cannot be disturbed, so we need to cap the chimney in the Winter in anticipation of working on the lining in the Summer. It's a process.

So to make this vision a reality we need to save up. I'm hoping this is the year we can do at least one of them, so that by next Winter, the pups can sleep in front the fire for the first time.

Ideal date:

October 24th

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