Burn (sustainable) wood - not your money!

Three years ago we moved into out house. I had a list of things that I wanted changed - immediately! And one of them was to remove the ghastly gas fire, which we weren't even sure was safe.. and re-instate the fireplace.

Of course, things take time, and the kitchen and bathroom were priorities, and the ugly fireplace remained there - lurking. Until, one afternoon last year, with the help of the builder, the gas fire was removed (don't worry - was all disconnected when kitchen was re-done!)

But a house more than 10 years old always hides away a few surprises. And behind the ugly fire was and even uglier redundant back boiler. And it was bricked in.

So the project slowed... as I chipped and chipped away at the bricks, and after they were removed it took quite some time to pluck up the courage to pull the thing out and grind the old pipes away. (could not have done this without hubby's help)

To cut a very long story short(er) we initially had the chimney swept and had a simple firebasket. But our intention was to 'upgrade' to a Jetmaster, a convector fire box that is far more efficient, and rather easy on the eye! We managed to get a builder friend to part with a used one and then the real hard work began - there was a tiny difference between the size of the hole and the firebox, many hours with a chisel later it finally slid in .

Was it all worth it?

Heck yes!!!!!!!!!!

Having an open fire is just lovely, there is nothing like it. But even better than that, since finding a good place to buy our firewood, it is saving us money hand over fist, our gas bill just went down by £30 a month! Plus, it's sustainable energy, so cheaper for us and greener - installing the jetmaster was an excellent investment and an enjoyable addition to our home.

New Favourite Places

I was trawling the Internet recently and stumbled across a place called Witney Warehouse, though I must admit I took no action, and had no idea where it was.

Today I decided that as I was doing a few errands around town I'd hunt for the place.

What I found is a little gem, a large warehouse full of goodies, most old, some new. There is everything from enormous stripped pine dressers, to repro mirrors, chairs, painted furniture - just a wealth of goodies. And of course part of the charm is that they have age, and are one offs.

I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a coffee as I browsed their stock, and found the owner and staff to be helpful and friendly. What's more -they encourage you to haggle a bit on the prices! Quite how I came to leave the place without having bought something just shows that I have incredible self control (ha ha!) as I would happily have bought most of their stock.

It does surprise me that in this credit crunch, as we are not tending to buy new. that there are not more places selling what is second hand, but gorgeous quality furniture and home furnishings. The only other affordable, but sometimes slightly over-priced second hand furniture place in Witney is Sobell warehouse, where you can stumble across some little gems also, but generally it's pretty dull furniture.

Sobell House warehouse however is unbeatable for clothing, at £1 per item, or 50p per item for kids wear why would you shop anywhere else? You do have to keep visiting however as sometimes the stock is less than exciting. Today though I bought a number of kids designer outfits and my total spend was under £5! They also do homewares. Only downside is that they presently only open on Tuesday and Friday mornings (10-1) and some Sunday's.

But it's not just a good idea to save money by buying at these places - in this re-cycling focused society surely re-using things should be something we're doing more and more of??!

If anybody has any more tips on places like these - I really want to know about them. I am so used to seeking out bargains that I really hate to pay full price for anything!