....and an antique claw foot bathtub. We just haven't installed it yet.

This morning at about ten the folks from the propane fireplace shop showed up to install the tank and the fireplace. Everything was going just great until they cut away the gyprock in the wall for the flue at the spot where I had planned for it and discovered that I had picked a spot right where a load bearing post was located. I was pretty sure that it was load bearing as the darn thing was 8"x8" and was right in the centre of the wall. I should have seen it coming but I guess with the excitement of getting the fireplace where I can sit with Barb and a glass of wine, and...but I digress. I should have realized that it was the most likely place for a support column and tried to plan for it somehow. As it was, after a panicked phone call to one of the local builders together we managed to cut away the support and install a brace to replace it. As I write this the fireplace is burning merrily away pumping heat into the house and Peri has decided that he really likes the spot right in front of it. Can't imagine why.

While all this was going on the guys who were transporting the tub from its former home in Clyde River arrived and I gave them a hand muscling it up the stairs and through the narrow doorway into the bathroom where it will wait for a day or two until I finish off a couple of other projects and can start tearing out the other tub and working on the floor to finish it and rig it to support the weight. I figure that stand alone it must weigh over 200 lbs and with water and me in it, it should easily triple that amount.

The really good news is that as we were cutting out the flue for the fireplace we discovered that the house walls have about two inches of wood, two inches of Styrofoam between the wooden wall and the vinyl siding and about four inches of blown in cellulose fiber insulation. That should give us a decent R-factor for a house this size and age I think, as long as we don't try to have the temperature up so high that it be construed as a sweat lodge. So, even a small setback has its advantages.