Marjorie the Margin Gem Cookstove Is in the Kitchen

In the ongoing saga of our kitchen renovation, we are getting a little closer to the installation of the wood cookstove.  Delays have been numerous, but I don't want to go into that here.  I did want to share a few pictures, though.

Our nephew posing inside the firebox of the Margin Gem.

Our nephew visited us last week, and as he and I were playing jump around the house (in which he did all of the jumping and I did all of the lifting), he "jumped" into the firebox of the stove as it sat awaiting the plumber to return to finish the job of connecting it to our water supply.  We thought that the picture was too cute to pass up.

At any rate, as we were shopping for our new cookstove online, one of the things that frustrated me was that there seemed to be a deplorable lack of photos of the Margin Gem from all angles.  As the back of our cookstove will be quite visible from the dining room and immediately as you enter the back door of the house, I was very curious to know what the back of the Margin Gem looked like.  The back of the Qualified range sat farther out into the kitchen, and it was quite visible.  Unfortunately, it was also not very attractive.

As you can see below, the back of the Margin Gem is simply a straight black panel, and compared to what we are used to, it is very chic.  Many stoves have their flue exit out the rear of the stove, thus causing the back of the stove to be pretty utilitarian and rather ugly.  Because the flue exits out the top of the stove in front of the backsplash, the back of the Margin Gem is quite nice.  This flue design coupled with a built in heat shield which is standard on the lower part of the stove also allows the rear clearances of the Margin Gem to be 6" from a combustible wall.  The low clearances were a huge selling point to us because we were tired of the stove sticking out so far into the kitchen.

The back of the Margin Gem cookstove from the firebox side.

While we were doing our shopping, we seriously considered the Heartland Oval, but the optional heat shield which can be attached to the rear of that cookstove was not only expensive, but also rather unsightly when compared to the Margin Gem. In the pictures, you see the stove moved out into the kitchen.  Nancy and I moved it this morning in order to facilitate the plumber continuing his work today.

The rear view of the Margin Gem from the reservoir side.

Front right side view of the Margin Gem.  As much hardware as could be removed
is missing so that it is as light as possible while we continue to move it around to
facilitate cabinet construction, tiling, etc.  In addition to the lids on the top, note that the faucet
to the reservoir has not been installed yet, either.

This view shows that the soot cleanout door under the oven is missing,
and so are the two bell drafts from the ash door and the left side.

The range boiler is almost ready to be attached to the cookstove.

As you can see, progress is being made, but I am having a tough time being patient.  As I write tonight, a howling north wind is making our temperatures plummet, and the forecast high for tomorrow is in the low 20s.  This is the time when having a woodburning cookstove is most ideal, and all we can do is stare at ours.  I wish that we could have re-installed the Qualified while we waited, but Nancy was right when she nixed that idea because it would have been quite an imposition on the male family members who would have been called upon to move it over and over. 

All I can say is that I hope that the stove is installed and operating by the end of January and that February brings us several snow days during which I can stay home and cook up a storm.  Fortunately for everyone else, I'm not in charge of the weather.

As we progress with the stove assembly, I'll post more pictures in an effort to provide the internet with a place that shows the details which seem to be missing out there in cyberspace.  If you don't see a view of the Margin Gem that you'd like to see, please post a comment, and I'll try to get a picture that satisfies your curiosity.