Front Room Closet Remodel: Assessing & Planning

Dan's fall and winter project is to finish the front room. Originally a bedroom, I set up my big floor room in it and am now using it as a weaving room. Or at least I will be when all the remodeling is done! There are several things that need finishing in this room: the walls where he replaced the original windows, the back of the masonry stove, and the closet. He starting with the closet.

The first step was to tear out the remaining closet wall.

What's immediately curious is that paint job. Why would they only paint it green part way up? Probably because that was a high as they could reach.

Our ceilings are high at 8'10." The original closest door measured 72" in height (standard door height is 80"). The closet shelf was at installed at 64." Include the door molding and this configuration only allowed 7 inches between the shelf and the top of the door for shelf access.

You can see more photos including the original room layout here.

That meant that the 32-cubic-feet above the shelf were pretty much inaccessible for storage. I definitely want to remedy that.

The other problem with this closest is that the original interior depth was only 17.5 inches. That's barely wide enough for a clothes hanger! By tearing out the wall, we gained 4 extra inches in depth. You can see the difference in this next photo looking up into the closet ceiling.

The original closet interior is painted white. The unpainted part is where the wall used to be. The 2x6 is where the new closet exterior will be. 

The next step was to cover the exposed bricks on the lefthand wall.

I missed getting a photo, but before he put up the plywood, Dan added a thick piece of ceramic fiber blanket to insulate the wall, the same stuff that he used to insulate the masonry stove core. Because it's just the inside of the closet, he used plywood instead of trying to match the tongue-and-groove.

The plan is to install standard hollow core bypass doors, with a shelf over top to give me access to the additional storage space, similar to what Dan did in our bedroom. 

In the bedroom closet, Dan built shelves. He asked me to figure out what I want to do with this closet, so I've had to think about how the space will be used. What I really need is storage space for my totes and boxes, not a clothes closet. Considering that the room could still be used as a bedroom, however, I don't know that it would be wise to put the whole closet in shelves. At the moment, I'm considering some stand-alone wire shelf units, something like these. One on either end of the closet.  

So those are our tentative plans. Next step is paint those walls. 

Front Room Closet Remodel: Assessing & Planning 

© 2025 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

2nd Test Fire & Masonry Stove Improvement #4

The Structo-lite plastering (stuccoing?) is complete and I don't mind telling you I don't know what to think. I really really liked the bricks, but with the small and annoying smoke leaks in the mortar, this was the option Dan went with. The second test fire confirmed it was a good choice because thanks to better sealing of the thermal mass, the smoke by-pass, and improvement #4, the stove worked beautifully!

Improvement #4 was to enlarge the built-in damper in the firebox door. It just wasn't large enough for a good air flow to get the fire started. 

Our firebox door. Photo from Masonry Heater Project

The slots on the bottom are the damper, with the cute knob to adjust the air intake. For our particular type of stove, this air intake needs an area of 2 & 3/8 square inches. The original door damper was less than 2 square inches and so the fire had trouble catching. Dan enlarged the air slots to the required specs and that made a big difference. 

The photo's a little dark but hopefully you can see the difference.

For our 2nd test fire, better initial air flow made it easier to get the fire going. 

My challenge now is the aesthetics of the thing. The plaster is off-white, which looks brighter compared to my pale gold walls. Off-white is a nice neutral color, but in my mind it needs to coordinate with it's color environment to its best advantage. I'm seriously re-thinking my living room color scheme! That's one thing I'm contemplating. The other is the solidness of the color. The subtle color variations in the brick gave the stove visual texture which is gone now. So that's the other thing I'm thinking about. The thing is, aesthetics is highly subjective. So there is no right or wrong, it's just a matter of what one likes.

The most important thing is that the problems we had have now been addressed and the stove is functioning as it should. It burns more efficiently with very little ash left in the firebox afterward, and the thermal mass retains and radiates the heat beautifully.

While I decide how to address the visuals in the living room, Dan is in the planning stage for finishing the back of the stove and rebuilding the closet in the front bedroom.

Finishing the wall and remodeling the closet will be two separate projects.

We have our indoor winter projects cut out for us.

2nd Test Fire & Masonry Stove Improvement #4 

 © 2025 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Permaculture Adventure Bundle

 I just wanted to share a limited opportunity to purchase over $600 worth of homestead and permaculture resources for $45. This bundle was originally offered last year, and is a "back by popular request" sort of promotion. It's available for the next 48 hours.

Here's what's in it:

-Roundhouse Studio Plans Package & Earthbag Building Guide eBook by Owen Geiger - value $150
-Finding the Perfect Homestead Property Course (2 Lessons) by Curtis Stone - value $59
-PawPaw Quick Start Guide (Video and eBook) by Michael Judd - value $15
-Boosting your Garden Yields by Growing Algae Presentation by Matt Huber - value $7
-Wooden Door with Mycelium Insulation & Proenneke Hinge Guide plus plans by Andres Bernal - value $12.99
-Permaculture Guilds Training Session by Permaculture Gardens - value $29
-Hugelkultur: The Ultimate Raised Bed Gardening eBook (draft) by Paul Wheaton - value $10
-Easy Homemade Body Products eBook by Merissa A. Alink - value $5.96
-Composting Toilet Design Plan PDF by Rancho Mastatal - value $15
-The Design & Build of the Giant Solar Food Dehydrator movie by Paul Wheaton - value $9.95
-Save our Bees: Your Guide to Creating a Bee Friendly Environment eBook by Jason Johns - value $3.99
-DIY Specialty Soaps eBook by The Nerdy Farm Wife - value $9
-Building a Cob Style Rocket Mass Heater movie by Paul Wheaton - value $10
-Earthen Walls Webinar by Natalie Bogwalker/Wild Abundance - value $59
-Podcast Review of Botany in a Day by Thomas Elpel with Paul Wheaton - value $3
-Wildcrafting Weeds eBook by Colleen Codekas and Joel Schwartz - value $9.97
-Building a Better World in your Backyard eBook by Paul Wheaton - value $7.99
-45 Low Tech Things Webinar by Paul Wheaton - value $10
-Issues 110 & 118 of Permaculture Design Magazine - value $9.90
-Practical Mending eBook by Kate Downham - value $5
-Cooking with a Rocket Oven movie by Paul Wheaton - value $3.50
-Thermophilic Compost for the Garden and Homestead PDF by Alan Booker - value $4.50
-Podcast Gob 281-320 by Paul Wheaton - value $4
-6 Issues of Tiny House Magazine - value $42
-Backyard Food Forest Webinar by Helen Atthowe - value $10
-Water Biofilters & Composting Toilet Systems Presentation with Tim Barker - value $10
-Why Chickens are the Enablers and Heroes of Permaculture Design (Workshop) by Patricia Foreman - value $15
-Issue 6 of Living Woods Magazine - value $3.50
-Core Site Layout: Zone 1 Planning Online Workshop by Ben Falk - value $20
-Saving our Seeds eBook by Bevin Cohen - value $14.99
-Celery Wine: The Story of a Country Commune eBook by Elaine Sundancer - value $8
-The Beginning Gardener's Toolbox eBook by The Little Green Shoot - value $37
-How to Bake without Baking Powder by Leigh Tate - value $6.99
-Northern Great Basin Restoration Agriculture Biome Models Presentation by Neil Bertrando - value $4.50

Sale runs through Sunday morning.

Here's the link - Permaculture Adventure Bundle.

Orphan Baby

 

Summer

This week I lost Sky, my favorite doe. 

Sky and her baby Summer. Photo from July 2025

At 8½ years of age Sky was my oldest doe and my best tempered. I really had no clue anything was wrong other than she had been quite picky about her feed for the past several weeks. That in itself isn't all that unusual, but then she developed severe scours and stopped eating altogether. I had recently wormed my goats so I added a coccidiosis treatment, vitamin B and iron shots, and Nutri-Drench. Two days later she was gone. 

That in itself is incredibly hard, but worse, she left behind her 9-week-old doeling, Summer.

Baby Summer is able to eat well on her own, but I really, really like for them to be on their mother's milk for at least 12 weeks or longer. They seem to grow so much better that way. Plus, things born or hatched of a mother need a mother. It's the way things are. Summer is now an orphan.

One concern for lone kids is that they get picked on by the other goats. Fortunately, Sky was very firm that no one was allowed to mess with her baby, so they've accepted her. She gets butted around some, but mostly the others don't bother her. 

Only once has Summer cried for her mother and gone to look for her. I let her see and smell the body before we took it away. Somehow, animals have an understanding and acceptance of death. That doesn't mean she doesn't miss her mother, but she's doing pretty well anyway. Being a single with no other kids her age around, she doesn't have a playmate or companion. So she's mostly by herself. She follows the other goats but stays out of their way. 

I haven't tried to give her a bottle because once kids are used to the teat they refuse it. I'm making sure she gets feed with extra protein and calcium. 

I'm going to be sad about this for a long time. 

Orphan Baby © October 2025 by Leigh

at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Garden Notes: September 2025

  Rainfall

• 4th: 0.07"
• 6th: 0.33"
• 16th: 0.11"
• 20th: 0.36"
• 25th: 1.34"
• 26th: 0.03
• 27th: 1.0"
• 29th: 0.15"
• Total: 3.39 inches

 Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 51 to 69°F (10.5 to 20.5°C)
• range of daytime highs: 71 to 87°F (22 to 30.5°C)

Garden Notes: It's been a transition month:

• Finishing the harvest for some things
• Seed saving
• Cleaning out beds for either fall planting or their winter rest
• Planting fall and winter veggies
• Starting containers of same to transfer into the greenhouse when the weather is colder. 
• Watering as needed because rain has been scant

Planted

• parsnips
• kale
• blue collards
• garlic
• lettuce
• turnips
• daikon
• carrots

Harvested

• okra
• yam berries
• sweet basil
• parsley
• muscadines
• cherry tomatoes
• onions
• green beans
• green peppers
• elderberries
• slicing tomatoes
• garlic
• field corn
• asparagus
• lettuce

Preserved

• muscadines, frozen
• elderberries, frozen
• okra, frozen
• basil, dehydrated
• parsley, dehydrated
• field corn, dried
• green beans & yam berries, canned

Pictures

Summer tomatoes making a come-back after a hot dry spell.

Summer green beans. They were late producing but are doing well now.

Spring planted Swiss chard. Something ravaged it over the
summer so that I thought it was completely destroyed. But
with the cooler temps and recent rain, it's thriving again.

Greenhouse collards planted about a year ago. These survived much
 neglect over the summer, but survived in a shady spot under a tree.

Late summer planted lettuce

Late summer planted daikon

Late summer planted kale

And a few non-garden pics. 

Lots of eggs! Mostly chicken with a few duck eggs. The little
 ones are pullet eggs from our newly laying Buff Orpingtons.

Brownie sundae with homemade goats milk ice cream.

So that's my garden at the end of September. How is yours?

Garden Notes: September 2025 © Sept 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Test Fire for the Smoke By-pass & Stove Improvement #3

We had a test fire the other day to see if our smoke by-pass worked. Success! It's going to take some figuring out in terms of judging when the thermal mass is heated enough to close it, but that will have to wait. It's still too warm outside to heat the house more than it already is. But by opening and closing the damper we could make some assessments.

One of those assessments were a few smoke leaks in the mortar between the bricks. We noted these last year but waited to figure out what to do. One option was to repoint the brickwork, which involves touching up the mortar between all of the bricks. Dan wasn't too keen on this. The other option was to plaster the entire stove. This would deal with any small leaks and also give the stove an entirely different look.

We considered covering the brickwork with mortar last year, but I liked the look of the brick so we left it. Experience has an amazing way of changing one's mind, however. 

Here's the stuff Dan is using.

Structo-Lite. Dan found it at Ace Hardware for about $26 for 50#.

Structo-Lite contains gypsum plaster and perlite, has good insulation value, and is suitable for high heat applications. 

It dries to an off-white. Coloring is available to mix in, but I thought off-white was a nice neutral color that will go well with any color scheme. 

To get a cleaner edge on the corners, Dan found this trick on youtube.

His brickwork wasn't as even on the corners as he'd like, so the mesh pretty much evens them more consistently for plastering. 

So that's what's up at the moment. Two coats are recommended, and then we can have a second test fire. 

Test Fire for the Smoke By-pass & Stove Improvement #3 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com

Masonry Stove Improvements: Clean-Out Door

I'll start this post by saying we've just been plugging away here. I'm still busy with the garden and cheese making. Dan has been busy on the stove. After installing the smoke by-pass, his next step was to put in a clean-out door. So at last I have something to show you.  

The clean-out door is a necessity for removing any ash or residue inside the stove. Last year when we designed the layout, we decided to put the clean-out in the back of the stove, which is part of the wall in the front bedroom. 

Originally, the house had double back-to-back fireplaces. This is where it was in the front
 bedroom (now my big loom room). Photos of the original bedroom and fireplace here.

Dan tore the entire bedroom wall out last summer. We wanted to remove the combustible tongue-and-groove wall and also remodel the closet.

To get a good look inside the stove, Dan cut a nice size hole in the bricks. 

What you see inside the stove is the core (firebox). 

Based on efficiency, we had a feeling one of the bricks had fallen off the and sure enough, it had. Dan had enough room to repair the brick and vacuum out the thermal mass. 

Most clean-out doors measure about 8-inches by 8-inches. I suppose that's adequate for sweeping out ash, but for our stove design, we were glad to find one measuring 12-inches by 12-inches. Plenty good for inspecting the inside and using the shop vac to clean it out. 

Door frame in place

Door done. 

We found it on Amazon, the link is here.

So that's done! Dan has one more improvement he wants to make, so more on that sometime. First fire is usually mid-October, so we'll be ready. 

Masonry Stove Improvements: Clean-Out Door 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com

Masonry Stove Improvements: Smoke By-pass

Last summer, Dan built a masonry stove to replace our cast iron wood heater.

Masonry stoves are based on ancient
technology and are amazingly efficient.

The gist of how it works is that the firebox is located in a large, empty space called a thermal mass. The thermal mass retains and radiates heat long after the fire goes out. 

Last winter, we used it and loved how long it kept the house warm between fires. The downside is that it tends to be a bit smokey with a cold start. Until the mass warms up enough to create a good draft, smoke comes out every time the door is opened, or through any leaks in the masonry. There are tricks for dealing with this (Tests and Tweaks), and usually, people only have trouble at the beginning of the season. For us, however, in our goofy southern climate, there are times when we don't need the stove and let it go out. In a typical winter here, we might restart the stove several times, especially in spring. 

Last month, Dan added a smoke by-pass to use when the stove is started up. The by-pass offers a direct outlet for the smoke created when starting a fire. Once the stove heats up and the draft is good, the by-pass damper is closed and the thermal mass can build up heat. 

Here's what Dan did in pictures.

The first step was to take down the existing chimney pipe. He
cleans the chimney once a year anyway, so that got done too.

Installing the damper required drilling a 6-inch hole in the top of the
 stove. For that, we had to get a 6-inch diamond masonry drill bit.

The damper had to be modified to be a by-pass. This is because a typical damper plate has openings in it. We needed to seal these so that there would be no heat leaks when the damper was closed. To block the openings, Dan added a disc of ceramic fiber blanket. 

Here it is from the damper side, where you can see the openings
and gap. You can also see how the insulation discs blocks them.

Insulation side

To close off the damper when not in use, the disc of ceramic blanket had to be cut larger than the damper plate. But Dan was concerned that the soft, pliable fabric wouldn't stay flat. He thought about it for awhile, and then settled on holding it in place with a round table saw blade.

 

Here it is, reassembled with the new smoke by-pass in place.

It's still too warm to try it out, but Dan has a couple more improvements to work on, so I'll show you those as he finishes them. 

Masonry Stove Improvements: Smoke By-pass 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com

Garden Notes: August 2025

  Rainfall

• 3rd: 0.12"
• 4th: 1.53"
• 5th: 0.58"
• 6th: 0.23"
• 11th: 0.69"
• 12th: 0.98"
• 13th: 0.07"
• 14th: 0.25"
• 15th: 0.38"
• 16th: 0.97"
• 20th: 0.03"
• 28th: 0.17"
• 21st: 0.5"
• 22nd: 0.02"
• 23rd: 0.03"
• 24th: 0.32"
• 25th: 0.01"
• 31st: 0.29"
• Total: 7.17 inches

 Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 55 to 72°F (13 to 22.2°C)
• range of daytime highs: 65 to 92°F (18.3 to 33.3°C)

Weather Notes

• The first was our hottest day, but then rain came and cooled things off for the rest of the month. It was humid, though, so it still felt pretty warm. 
• It was nice to have only one super hot month this year instead of our usual two.

Garden Notes

• The summer glut of produce to pick and preserve has wound down. 
• Fall planting has started.
• As has seed collecting.
• After each bed is harvested and seeds collected, I'll clean it up and tuck it in for winter.

Planted

• daikons
• lettuce
• turnips

Harvested

• okra
• lambs quarter
• slicing tomatoes
• cherry tomatoes
• pears
• apples
• beets
• parsley
• oregano
• basil
• rosemary
• buckwheat
• asparagus
• elderberries
• bell peppers
• walking onions
• muscadines
• green beans

Preserved

• pear sauce, canned
• tomato sauce, canned
• pear vinegar
• basil, dehydrated
• parsley, dehydrated
• elderberries, frozen
• muscadines, frozen

Photos

Okra, Clemson and Jing

Sweet basil

Pears

Pear vinegar

Odd tomato

Late summer asparagus

Muscadine grapes

1st green bean of the season. I don't know why they're so late!

Green bell peppers

Green peppers, sweet potato vines, and cherry tomatoes in the African keyhole garden

If you look closely at the previous photo you can probably spot
the stained glass dragonfly. It was made by our neighbor.

So, August has been a transition month in good ways, from too hot to tolerably hot, from too dry to plentiful rain, and from busy harvest to winding down the garden. How about you? What's your August been like?

Garden Notes: August 2025 © August 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com