Remember the Friday Ads or the Trading Post? Depending on where you were in the world, I'm sure you had a local paper for second hand goods. I remember pouring over them for hours looking for what we might need. Now, of course, you just put what you are searching for in Facebook Marketplace and you might strike it lucky, or put in a search alert.

We were researching wood ovens because winter is coming for us. We wanted something small with good eco ratings, and narrowed it down to three. One I really liked was a Charnwood Aire 7, made in England on the Isle of Wight. I absolutely couldn't believe it when I did a search on Marketplace and one turned up just near us! They retail for $4000 AUD and this was up for $1200. It had been used two seasons but she'd got to the trouble to clean it and get a new rope for the door, black it, and even get a new tray for the ash as she felt it was a little rusty. So what you see here isn't what it was when we picked it it up - it was clean and looking absolutely stunning.

It has a heap of good things going for it - high efficiency, great eco ratings for efficienty and emissions, and you can even cook on it - either straight on the top or you can get an extra from Charnwood. The glass at teh front is bigger than most of the small stoves AND it's super thick British steel. Honestly can't believe we found it. The people we bought it off were super nice so it was also a good vibes buy, AND she gave me some tomato seeds!

Now here's the fun bit - what will it look like in our home? Again, I love AI for this! So basically we have a built in chimney that's plastered up in inside - there used to be a gas fire there.

So the idea is to open it up again - just where the chest of drawers is (we were practicing the layout here) and put the Aire 7 in there, putting bricks so you have a more insulative, reflective layer, and some kind of paintable heat shield at the back, but also a place to store wood and the fire tools.

Space is of a premium in our small home so even this small recess will really make a difference. It'll be a pain to do, but if the AI image is right, it'll look bloody awesome. Now to hunt for some second hand bricks!

I imagine we're going to have a busy DIY Easter, that's for sure.

With Love,

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