When my husband first brought me over to look at the house after “he” purchased it the first thing I saw when I walked in was this hideous wood stove with the most hideous brown wall behind it. I immediately wanted to punch my husband when he said he didn’t want to get rid of it, because that was the first thing I said I wanted done. This thing needs to go! It’s right smack in the middle, it couldn’t have been in a corner, no, it was right smack in the center of that wall. I hated it. Of course, I didn’t know then what I know now. I grew up in the Deep South and never saw one. But I wouldn’t trade this for a furnace now, no way. It saved us so much money this past winter and believe it or not it had no problem heating up the entire house. There’s also a bit of nostalgia when having to fire up the wood stove. Definitely gives us the sense that we are homesteading. It would have been silly of me to demand getting rid of it. Because literally everyone in this area has a wood stove. Everyone! I feel kind of silly now that I had those feelings then. I was pregnant with the twins so give me a break! 😂

Do you see what I mean? Hideous, just horrid. The wall, that horrendous trim you see chipping, that ugly tile, the even fuglier brown carpet, and what is up with those weird rubber things under the feet? Like, why? WHY?! Now you understand why I wanted to choke my husband? I was blind of the potential because I couldn’t see past this. Now I do. Now I have a wonderful vision of what this is going to look like when we do what we plan to do. Its going to look fabulous. Better believe it!

Obviously, we didn’t know a thing about having a wood stove much less how to clean it. So we haven’t done anything to it other than use it during our first full winter here. There was rust on it when we bought the house, and my kids also love to pour water on it and play with the rusty water like its paint. I know. Tell me about it. So, I need to get the rust off, then I plan on painting it. I would love to leave it like this, but I think it will look gorgeous in a Navy shade. Just imagine, a stone wall that continues down and out replacing the tile, and two white bookshelves on the side with one having a place for stacking wood. The wood stove shining in all its vintage glory with a coat of Navy paint. Can you imagine that? I can. And I cannot wait!

In the meantime, I need to get this thing back in shape. We are replacing the chimney pipe and it definitely needs a new damper before this winter hits.  I will probably have to wait to paint it because theres really no point in doing so if we aren’t remodeling the living room yet. One room at a time! We still have the laundry area and the other half of the kitchen to finish. Patience. Patience! Patieeeeence!

So today I started the renovation process, but I think ill need to sand the top rust off because its pretty obvious they were using it to cook. Theres way too much rust and grime, almost looks like they cooked some pork chops on there! Thats something I will be doing this winter, using my wood stove for some cooking and coffee, but first I have to find some ceramic tile so that I don’t damage the iron and have to do the cleaning again!

So this is where we started today.

We made progress!

Do you think I should paint it? Or leave it as is without the rust. If you have any tips on getting the rust off leave me a comment!

Until next time, God Bless!

-Cristina