Some days you are the fly some days the windscreen...

So of course we are at it again, another project in prospect.

Off in the Xantia bright and Friday early (Taliesin having gone to work at 8 am) and up to Beacon Stoves where the all Wales whistling through teeth competition ensued.

"Not going to fit that in there" sure enough they were pretty right so home for the 806 seats out and back again.

Naturally there were a few diversions with children being here there and everywhere.

But onwards and upwards back I went with a Bruce to assist and the stove went into the car.

Well, sort of, the little stacker lift handled the weight OK but of course as the stove went in the car, as the weight went on, the car went down and the tail gate came too rest, on the stacker lift.

So that was stuck. Rather a lot of fiddling and we manger to get the stove in the car and the lift out of the way.

Back home then.

Needing to have a usable car the stove needed to come out, time to break out the green goddess kit.

With the short rescue ladder we soon had a ramp affair leading into the house, well we did once we got the car lined up which took not many more than 5 goes.

Then of course with the stove struggled on to the ladder we realised there was an extra bit of Green Goddess kit we were missing. They used to come with 6 burly squaddies, marines or paras. Really we needed some serious muscle if 200 kg of stove was going anywhere and with the stove on the ladder and going no where either in or out of the Plugeot we realised we had none of those.

Getting the time right we assembled, Branwen aka the crane, Taliesin the all purpose tool, Management, Me and Bethan the ladder brake.

Ripping the case open, as much stove as possible was removed and the sweating and swearing commenced.

I should of course mention that Branwen was on her way to work and Bethan was off to a party and this was the 30 minutes or so between Tallie getting home from work and Branwen leaving for work all journeys of course being ours to drive.

So with Talie taunting I managed to get the damn thing in the living room and the rest of the night happened.

Morning, ah yes we like mornings.

Up and at em, old stove removed, of course it came out easily.

All it took was a lump hammer to smash a casting (hearth kit - Green Goddess).

The podium it stood on came out easy too, all it took was a sledge hammer big pry bar and oh yes, hearth kit again ( from Gloria.....)

The mess was cleared with a big shovel (from...)

So now we were ready to go.

Well no, of course Bethan had not woken early enough to go to work so she needed a taxi, well no, taxis costs money, dad and mum do not.

Into Jewsons to get the bits we needed while we were out. The staff in that branch do degrees in disinterest so having piled a load of stuff on the counter one remark was enough to see us out the door and off to our local branch to buy the same stuff, but of course that was 20 miles of drive driven.

So. we were home, we had the bits, we had the tools.

We were ready to go...

Yes of course we were.

Except one small minor trivial point - it hardly merits a mention really.

The thing was too big for the fire place.

Could not connect it to the flue.

The new stove is such a monster that the flue and it could not be conjoined.

There was a brief period of "consideration" - fortunately this was mainly a management error so a lengthy post mortem with it's associated detailed scrutiny of decision making and attendant recrimination was avoided

Serious rethink time and we needed a 45 degree connector.

Ahhh now it's after 12 on a Saturday, what's open?

Wickes

and they did't stock anything like what we needed.

So back home we went.

This was the point where we thought of our own cottage with it's own stove that has an - oh yes 45 degree connector.

So we pinched that except it had been there for 15 years and was not about to let go anytime soon and needed technical skills removal - big hammer....

So anyway, at last we were ready to go and the new stove went in, well not, the one pipe was out of shape with the time it had been in and, of course, this required a lot of hammering.

But to bring you up to speed, vast amounts of hammering and a lot of swearing have put the stove in place.

Tomorrow the plumbing starts.


R