And now the wood stove

We decided it would be a good idea to move the wood stove into the house before the nice French doors were installed. Something about being worried about damage or some silly thing like that.

Dad and Matt on hand

We got the stove from Woodstock Soapstone in New Hampshire. An extremely friendly and pleasant company to deal with. I had wanted one of their stoves for many, many years and had picked exactly the one I wanted. Then they came out with this cool new stove called the Progress Hybrid and I quickly changed my mind and my order. (Note that I am in no way affiliated with the company and they don't know I'm writing this).

Much discussion and measuring went into figuring out where to place the hearth stone.

Leveling the hearth rock

 I was used as the counter weight so Chris could get the leveling pieces under the hearth.

I'm actually tipping up the rock (slightly)

Once it was level, the guys started muscling that stove around. Note that it weighs around 750 pounds and is top heavy as hell on that sucky pallet. That was our only complaint - the pallet that the stove sits on is great if you own a pallet jack. If not, the stove it very tippy on it and we almost lost it several times. There was much cursing going on. On the plus side, Dad's dolly worked great once again. We've decided it was the best 30 bucks he ever spent.

Hold it steady!

 We finally improvised a pallet jack using a couple of 2x4's and can you believe it worked??? Awesome!

Almost in position

Does it look as precarious as it really was?

Removing the pallet

The pallet was designed to let you install the legs easily and to keep you from snapping said legs off while moving the stove. Apparently that was a problem they were trying to solve and it did work. The pallet supported the stove while we put on the legs and came off fairly easily once they were in place.

Legs are on

Dead nuts level right off the bat

 The next day we put the rest of the stove parts on. Needed to install the grate and ash can.

Putting in the grate

Ash can in place

 The directions for these were clear, well written, and had several useful hints / tips embedded.

Outside air intake

We also got the optional outside air adapter and installed that through the wall. Modern homes tend to be extremely air-tight and that can cause trouble with proper burning. This way cold air is brought in from the outside and feeds the stove. Nice.

All-in-all, a very successful install and many thanks to the family for helping us with it. Matt says he loves it and, assuming it performs as well as it looks, will likely be getting one for his place as well. Let's hope so.