Feelin' hot hot hot!

[judecorp]

Jen is in the bedroom starting to paint our new HOTT red boudoir! (Gosh I hope the color isn't too obnoxious.) Her friend was supposed to come and help at 10am and it is 12:21 and there is no friend in sight, no call, no e-mail, nothing. I know that free help beggars can't be choosers but it's weird to not get any contact from her. Jen called her cell and it went straight to voicemail. I wonder what's up with that. Our friend who was going to come help unpack yesterday didn't call or e-mail either, and when we called him, he said he was sick so we gave him a pass. But it's like, geeze, people, just call!

We're going to have to go to the store and buy more pellets soon if we keep running the stove like this. We're using the stove as primary heat for the time being because we put all of the tarps down on the floor in the bedroom and the forced air vents would have pooched out the tarps. So I am toasty in the living room and Jen is probably freezing in the bedroom with the windows open. Poor Jen.

I have now unpacked the rest of our dishes and will wash them as soon as my last load of dishes finishes drying in the rack. After that I will unpack the rest of the glasses (mostly wine glasses) and vases and then the entire kitchen will be D-O-N-E. Once we put the china cabinet together we will likely have to repeat this whole washing process with the china. Did I mention my grandmother/great-grandmother had service for SIXTEEN??!!? I don't know if we should wait for the dishwasher because I don't know how dishwasher safe the old china is. It has that metal stuff around the edges. Eh, we have plenty of time to worry about the china. We still need to paint the dining room and the living room accent wall.

We put curtains up in the living room because Jen didn't like the big window wide open. We bought some of those thick curtains that are supposed to help insulate (what the heck, can't hurt right?) and some sheer panels underneath. We put them up last night around 9pm... and by 8:00 this morning a cat had already clawed a large chunk of the sheer panel up. Way to go, cats.

Of course, the cats totally know what's good for them and are all hanging out doing the dozing/bathing thing in the living room. We don't see much of them all day but at night when the fire's on, it's like Cat Central in here.

I hope this pellet stove thing ends up being super efficient because ideally I'd like to use it as our primary heat source. I like it cold in my bedroom when I'm sleeping but warm when I'm chilling on the couch, so heating the house from the living room on down (it's a rectangle ranch, so a straight shot) seems ideal to me. Toasty, yet chilly. And as little natural gas as possible. We'll see when we start getting bills.

Comments

[smurfbrother.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure you should dishwasher the china - I'd imagine that stuff shold be hand-washed.

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

Don't use the dishwasher unless you want a dishwasher full of tragedy! The water is probably too hot and will fuck up the painting and gilting.

[photodork.livejournal.com]

heys young grasshoppers..,

tip1: as one who used to heat with wood, always have yer wood stove chimmney cleaned out with some regularity. you dont want to have any cresote buildup.... thats what causes teh fires.


tip2:
dont put any kind of quality china/crystal in the dishwasher...ever... srsly.
especially old china.(not even new stuff too)

wash it in the sink one piece at a time , with a wooden cutting board underneath it, or several layers of wash towels.... this keeps the china/crystal from chipping if you strike it in the metal sink..and keeps it from the high heat and pressure inside the dishwasher which destroy the china.
its alot more work to do this, but your service will last mostly forever.

[cappucinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun!

"But it's like, geeze, people, just call!"

Tell me about it. I think it's the human condition to not call.

[aminahfiddler.livejournal.com]

I stayed with a friend for a bit. He had a wood stove. I would put my slippers under the stove to warm them up. I love warm slippers on my feet. I would get the stove so warm. We'd always have a cast iron teapot of water on the top so the house was nice and warm and had plenty of moisture in the air.

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

Old china or for that matter any china with metal filigree is very much not dishwasher safe. It shouldn't be left soaking for more than 10-15 minutes to soften up something stuck on it and it should always be washed right after being used. Never use a scrubby or any sort of abrasive sponge. Sucks, doesn't it?

[mnsnstar.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you guys are really getting the place all cozy and nice. You've done more in a week than I've done in 3 yrs!!

Re: China- no dishwasher, if you do, light rinse, all top rack, but would be better to just wash by hand. When will you ever have all 16 place settings out at one time??

Happy house doing!

[andriagirlie.livejournal.com]

I shall be following your pellet adventures.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I suppose that's true. Maybe we will put the china away as is and then wash the pieces we need IF we ever need them.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess that's true. Though I am cracking up at "dishwasher full of tragedy"!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, our chimney was cleaned and inspected in September so it's good to go. Also, our stove uses pellets instead of pieces of wood so it is not supposed to build up as much creosote. I'm sure we will clean it out before next winter.

2. Yeah, I won't put the china in the dishwasher. Not that our dishwasher is even installed yet. Heh. What dishwasher? And we have sink guards on both sinks so the dishes won't chip AND we won't scratch the bottoms of our pretty sinks, so no worries!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I don't understand that. AT ALL. Grr.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Our stove is all protective-like and the whole stove doesn't get hot to the touch. You store the pellets up on top so that part is REALLY protected (so they don't catch on fire), so unfortunately we can't put a teapot up there. Well, we could but it wouldn't do anything. Which is a shame, because I'd love to get more moisture in the house.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

It's all worth it, I suppose. It's pretty china and we probably will use it a handful of times in our lives, so I guess it won't be TOO much trouble.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh don't worry, there is still so much to do! We are still living in our guest room because our box spring for our bed won't arrive until Wednesday. We still have one room entirely filled with boxes, the living room and dining room are a disaster area, we have no decorations up of any kind... I wish I could do more around the house without worrying because I really want to get more done!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

We love the pellet stove. LOVE. We haven't gotten an electric bill yet so we don't know how much the stove is using (we don't use a heck of a lot of electricity, so...) but the brochures say usually around $9/month. That's totally reasonable if it saves us a ton on gas bills.

Pellets come in 40lb. bags and the bags cost $6 here. And seriously, a bag lasts us a week if we use the stove all evening long until we go to bed. We really like it. Toasty!

[smurfbrother.livejournal.com]

Now that's a good idea.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I are smrt.