Our first Winter living in Vale de Prazeres has been interesting, discovering just how cold it actually gets, especially in a house with minimal insulation and large holes which allow the outside to blow in. It was cold.
The existing fireplace insert is a pretty good quality unit, with fan assisted vents but being located in the corner of the kitchen it takes some time to get the whole room warmed up.
With such a long cold spell, which is apparently unusual, we have used lots of wood feeding the fire through the past couple of months.
We took a wood delivery last year before we actually moved into the house and that wood pile has been supplemented by lots of timber from the house demolition. But it is running out, we didn't realise just how much wood we would need to burn to keep warm.
Today we received a new delivery from a local supplier. It took some time but the wood pile has been stacked to dry, ready for next Winter.
Roll on Summer.