Introducing our magnificent woodstove, the Quaker 250

My best friend Julia just wrote that not posting photos of the actual stove in my last post about installing it, "it's like writing a post about 9 months of pregnancy and not including photos of the baby." I retorted that no one photo could do this stove justice and she would just have to be patient. Well, the wait's over.

She could use a coat of stove black and some re-nickeling, but overall she's in incredible condition for being probably 100+ years old. I mentioned earlier that we bought it at the auction where we got our maple syrup equipment, which was a liquidation of a huge old family farm. This stove had heated the main farmhouse for God only knows how long. (I highly suggest you click on that link because it is quite a tale.) No one bid on this poor stove, not even us, when it first went on sale. We hadn't checked it out ahead of the bidding and didn't think we wanted an old stove, so we assumed this one would be in poor shape. Beautiful, but probably not worth it. The bidding went down to $5 and it was one of only a handful of things that just plain didn't sell.

Well, we felt bad for it. During a break in the bidding, we went over to check it out. It's a Quaker 250, manufactured by the White-Warner Company in Taunton, Mass, according to the nameplate on the back. We discovered a feature that the auctioneer must not have known about, and we knew we had made a dire error.

Yes - the whole fancy top, gigantic finial included, pivots off to the side and locks in place, revealing two cook burners. In fact, the whole top can lift right up, allowing you to feed the stove from the top. It even still had the handle to pick up the burner and adjust the flame underneath. We would looooooove to have a big old wood kitchen cookstove, but there's no way one would fit in this house. When we saw that this stove is good-lookin' enough for the "parlor" but also has cooking capabilities, we were very sad we didn't spring for the $5.

We keep looking and discovered other amazing things. For instance, look again at the the top photo. See those windows? Ya think they made glass tough enough to withstand the heat of a woodstove back in the day? No, they did not. Those windows are made out of mica. How those survived all this time is kind of a miracle. And check this out - it's also got what we like to call "fireplace mode."

Yup, you can feed it from the front too, and it's got this amazing(ly intact, not missing) ornate grate that prevents logs from tumbling out onto you while you, say, make s'mores. Behind that nickel bar on the main body of the stove is a vent that you can open or close to get the fire going or shut it down a bit.

And check this out! Even the side opens up so you can feed it from there too! The piece in the top part of the arch is actually a flap that pushes in, which swings back in place and prevents wood from tumbling back out as the load burns down and shifts. Like a one-way valve for firewood. Of course, if you actually loaded up its huge firebox that high, it would probably be 120 degrees in here.

So anyway. We fell in love with the stove and knew we had made a huge mistake by not parting with $5 for it. But it wasn't a yard sale - you couldn't just make an offer after the auction had passed it by. Meanwhile, the auction had moved on to the much pricier stuff under the tent. Hundreds of people were bidding on valuable furniture, letters from the Civil War, and a huge lot of vintage Fiestaware that still haunts my dreams. We went to the auction assistant and begged for a second chance. We tried to give her $5 but the rules of the auction stated that it had to go back on the block. The message went up the chain of assistants and finally made it to the auctioneer. Thankfully, he started the bidding at only $25. Everyone at that point was there for the farmhouse furniture and couldn't care less about the stove. He didn't push the issue, I put my hand up fast, and it was all over. Thankfully, it comes apart into so many pieces that we were able to move it with just the two of us, put it in the back of the Subaru, and drag it into our basement. There it sat for a year and a half - until just last Friday.

The whole house has changed - it's warm everywhere, and our freshly rewired living room ceiling fan keeps things circulating and comfortable. It is amazing. I'm also really looking forward to liberating a good chunk of the basement from the wood that's been sitting there for at least 15 years since Gabe's grandfather was alive and had a woodstove in the basement. With that ultra-dry wood and a drafty old stove, that stuff should be gone lickety-split! And because we already have the wood, the costs of installing the chimney will probably make up for itself in as little as 1-2 heating seasons - especially given that oil is back up into the $3/gallon range.

I feel like we moved into a nicer, warmer house. I feel that much more like I'm home. If the power goes out, we'll be all set. I feel like I can finally relax, warmly, after a grueling period of renovations. I feel liberated from the oil man. And I feel like having s'mores.