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Sunday the 15th was a fun day. We set the cultured stones on the wood stove wall. We had planned to use rock on the wall, until Cheryl Vernon told us about seeing a fireplace done with the cultured stone from Cultured Stone Design Solutions, Powder Springs, Georgia. After seeing her catalog, we decided to go to the showroom on our way home from Tunnel Hill, Georgia. We were pleased with what we saw and ordered the stone to be shipped to Seay's Feed Store in town. Delivery to our house was not an option for a big delivery truck. Our truck was loaded down with the ceramic tiles, making it impossible for us to haul the stones home. Roger at Seay's loaded the stones into our business truck with a fork lift , but Jon and I had to unload them at the house by hand.

I organized the stones according to color and size, and spritzed the back of each stone with water before handing them to Jon. We gathered small stones from our yard to fill in some of the gaps. We could have purchased a few smaller stones, but we wanted to add a little of Hougie Heaven to the wall. Bill Vernon, came over to help lift the 400 pound wood stove into place Tuesday.

Wednesday, Jon connected the stove pipe and we celebrated with a small fire in the stove. The chimney for the stove is off center because the basement woodstove chimney is on the right side in the same chase. The Consolidated Dutchwest Stove is manufactured by Vermont Castings in a Traditional Federal style. We purchased it from Jeff Downs of Franklin. He had only used the stove a few years, but chose to go with central heat because of his small children.