Ready? One, Two, Smoke!

My house might be the only colonial in Connecticut that doesn't feature a fireplace or chimney. I guess the previous folk must have worked for an oil company or something. Anyway, because of this I've been working over the last two months on renovating the house and making a nice spot available for a wood stove. After many trials and tribulations we have a perfect spot for the stove and its look just amazing in the family room.

Ok, great - so now what? Well, I guess i have to light the sucker. I don't have much experience with fires and fireplaces, so I did some reading on the 'net, talked with my father and then jumped into it!

Rule #1, don't start a fire if you don't know what you are doing...

I opened the flue and put about 500 gobs of newspaper in the firebox and then added a few "larger than kindling" pieces of wood. I lite the paper and closed the door to the stove. Wow. A lot of smoke. In fact, their was smoke pouring out of the stove where I didn't think smoke could pour! Out the door, the side door, the chimney connection. I honestly think I saw smoke actually come directly out of the paint. The stove looked like it was mad or something.

Rule #2, don't open the stove door...

So, what do I do? I opened the door... bad idea... the oxygen rushed in an created even more smoke! I think the neighbors thought I was having a bad 60's party at the house. Then again, they wouldn't have known because I was doing this at midnight...

I opened the windows, turned on the fan and tried to keep the smoke detectors from going off. Man, it really smokes!! I guess that is what you get for not understanding how to create a "draft" when starting a fire.

Rule #3, a little newspaper goes a long way

Ok, so I figured it out... a little newspaper, a few small scraps of dry wood and leave the door open creates a "draft" into the chimney. In 5 minutes you are ready to burn. I've had the stove running for the last two days and it is crazy hot! We had the house at 80 degrees with the windows open! Cool man! I love the fire, and the stove looks so nice when it is running. Even my dogs love it! My yellow Lab Cammie (named after Cam Neely, of course) sits about 2 inches from the stove. She just loves the warm air. I swear I can see the ticks and fleas jumping off her when it gets too hot!

Alls well that end well, but thank God everyone was asleep while the stove was belching smoke...