Window Wall

(Click on the photo for a larger view.)

Another project completed and marked off the list.
Another thing that makes our house seem that much more OURS.
(Disregard the visqeen wall treatment--that's an upcoming project.)

Although originally we planned the window wall for aesthetics only, we've figured out it's also going to work as a heat block since there used to be about about a 20º difference in temperature between the two sides of the bed. Mostly we've been swapping sides so neither one of us dies of dehydration in the night, but these windows direct the heat down around toward the foot of the bed.

We still make the dogs sleep on the floor... at least until the fire dies out and it starts to cool down. They're so abused.

napping during construction of the window wall

Also, my dad cut us a piece of expanded metal to put in the bottom of the firebox. I was really suspicious of that having any effect on the size and duration of the fire, but in a strange coincidence our fires have been longer and more mellow since we put it in there! He's a smart guy!

I'm bugging Keith to make the next project the sawdust toilet. A toilet is something that is very handy to have closer than 10 yards in the middle of the night.

The newest addition to the farm is a kitty my parents called Tigger, but Keith and I call him Dumpy. He was abandoned at the dumpsters on the highway and because my parents had a moratorium on adopting pets (remember Carl?), I didn't mention it to them when the woman placed the ad in the paper. Thursday night my mom says, "Guess what we're getting!" Yes, another cat. An indoor male cat. He's a cutie and super playful and pretty tolerant of the dogs--he even chased Mia this morning! Of the broken moratorium on animal adoption, mom says, "We didn't need him, but he needed us." Awwww. So that makes 3 dogs and 6 cats. Wow.

Look how fat Carl is! No wonder animals show up here!
(At least we hope that's fat and not pregnant!
Someone needs to trap Carl and get her to the vet ASAP!)

Tigger/Dumpy (a little cross-eyed), used to be fat,
was starved and abandoned, is about to get fat again.