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THE STACY HEATER
A huge stone veneered heater built by John and Shirl Stacy in
Adirondack, NY is my favorite owner built heater. John and Shirl
are dog-loving crafts people who live with one yellow, one black
and one chocolate lab in a home they built from mostly salvaged
materials. They began as groundhogs, living and working in their
basement with a recycled barn with antique slates still an unfinished
shell above them.
They contacted me by mail and phone and
began a long-time correspondence about a heater design. Eventually
they drove to Maine for a design session and together we came
up with a system they liked. They returned home and
built the foundation for the heater, bench and two flue chimney
stack. I joined them in the late spring to build the core, layout
the bench and help them refine their masonry skills. Their chocolate
lab, Journey, had puppies at the time, and throughout my visit,
I was gently urged to take a puppy, named Olga, in trade, along
with some cash and a handmade Adirondack rocker John had made
and given to me.
A view showing excellent
primary and secondary combustion in main firebox and upper
chamber oven. |
All that summer, John and Shirl gathered
stones one at a time in a 50 mile radius or so from their home
and laid out each face of the heater as a dry fitted panel on
the floor. When they had each panel right, they laid them in
place with almost hidden joints one stone at a time.
Later they came to Maine again and together
we hauled, marked and cut some Virginia Serpentine slabs I had
for bench stock.
Now they live upstairs and down, basking
in the warmth of a wood fire and their own long gentle labor
of love for each other and the stone.
Stunning streambed fossils
are
showcased in one of the veneer rocks. |
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