Another stove, and an anniversary

Today is our third wedding anniversary. We were married in Albany, New York, on May 10, 2012. As Walt says, it's been three years but it seems like 30! Explanation: on June 1, we will celebrate the 32nd anniversary of our vie commune. We spent the first three of those years in Washington DC, then 17 years in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and now 12 years (and counting) in Saint-Aignan in France. We first met each other and became friends in Paris in 1981.

Walt went out shopping yesterday and stopped in at the Saint-Aignan Bricorama store. There he saw a stove that we're interested in. It's made by Supra, which the mom-and-pop outfit in town could install. We're not convinced that they are the right installers for us, but maybe we'll find somebody else. There's a plumber I need to call.

Here's what the stove looks like. It's not that different from the one we already have, but it is significantly larger and slightly hotter. Stoves are measured in kilowatts. The old one is 8 kW and the new one would be 9 kW. So it would throw off slightly more heat, but not too much for the size of the space we have to heat.

Because the stove is wider and taller, it might look better in our fireplace. Below is a mockup I did, using my photo of the old stove in the fireplace but enlarging the size of the stove in Photoshop, to give us a better idea of how it would look. I like it. One part of getting the new stove will be a good cleaning of the bricks inside the fireplace to remove old soot and freshen everything up.

Now we need to see if it can be installed without ripping out our existing insulation (in the top of the fireplace) and the stainless steel chimney liner (which isn't inexpensive in itself). Meanwhile, we are signing a devis (accepting a bid) today, and sending in a check for part of the total cost, to have the room behind the fireplace redone. It's where Walt has his office and computer, and it's going to look good. Expect photos in June.