New arrival

We borrowed Mum and Michael's truck today and went for a drive to Ballarat.. came home with the new bakers oven! It weighs over 120kg (264 pounds), and was put into the back of the truck with a forklift. Getting it out was always going to be tricky, but Marty and I had a cunning plan, which looked a little something like this.. :)



A lot of pulling and a little balancing later, we got it into the back door!



We're almost amazed that it made it without breaking! It seems tough enough. Can't wait to get it into the fireplace! Isn't it cute? :)



We still have a little concrete to break out of the fireplace, then find some tiles to put down before installing the stove. We also need to find a piece of flue that will make a 6" pipe into a 5" pipe. See, on top of the chimney is an old ceramic chimney pot. We don't want to destroy the pot, (and it's concreted onto the chimney) but we need to install a cowl for the flue kit. The cowl will help regulate the air flow, and keep the creosote out of the chimney. So, the opening of the chimney pot is just over 5", and the flue kit is 6" (which is required by the oven). So, if we could get a converter flue piece, we might just be able to install the flue kit and cowl without removing an original part of the old cottage.

Another job is to clean the chimney before installing the flue kit and oven. We were given some advice about this from a nice old sales person.. it involves some old chicken wire and a rope. ;) It'll be an interesting experiment - we'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

Until then!