Picking up Donated Stove

Going to Norristown Pa today to pick up a coal stove that has been donated to the church. From what the people described it's a hand fired that was in the basement when they bought the house two years ago. The hubby is not mechanically inclined and his version of heating the house is turning the thermostat on the electric baseboard heaters. They have no interest in using the stove and decided to donate it to the church.

The church recently bought a three bedroom "fixer upper" to renovate and turn into a rental home for a low income family. It was built in 1890 in Ashland Pa. and was originally heated by a coal stove in the dining room and a coal fired cookstove in the kitchen. When we pulled the ugly warping paneling off the walls and found 5 layers of wall paper, we also found the old terracotta thimbles and they appear to be in pretty good shape.

This donated stove hopefully will be placed into a spot of honor in the dining room and put to use instead of sitting in a dark basement unused.

Got an extra stove? Consider donating it to a church and get a non-cash tax deduction!!!

I'll post pictures when we get there and break it down for transport. I'll post more showing it sitting in the fixer upper and firing up.

Always like pics ! nice to see one get back into action.

Good luck and do keep us posted. I'd look at more than just the thimbles in that chimney before I did the install...

dj

I'm thinkin you're gonna run into insurance problems with having the stove in a rental house--a few yrs back it was discussed in length on here. PLUS, stoves run & tended improperly can still burn a house down Padre:( Just something to check into I'd think.

dlj wrote:Good luck and do keep us posted. I'd look at more than just the thimbles in that chimney before I did the install...

dj

I agree with dllj here, a quick way to inspect a chimney is if you have a smart phone that has video capability with a light on it. Just lower the phone with the video recording, slowly down the chimney. You can then view the video when you pull it back up.

Randy

This is a house we purchased for $2,250. I did a clean out on the base of the chimney at the thimble, hooked up the stove and lit a small cardboard fire in it to see if the chimney drafted. Drafted with no problem. Never fear I will be brushing it out from the bottom to get the remainder of the junk out of it. There is no way I'm going up three stories on a 10:12+ pitch roof in the winter that is only accessible by ladder to video the inside of a chimney!!!!

This house is a fixer-upper that requires complete clean out, complete kitchen gutting, complete repainting of all surfaces. It sat empty for three years with water in the basement. Yep it's a mess, but cleanable and renovate-able.

This will provide heat while we do the cleanup and renovation on this house. The primary heat is an oil fired boiler. Someone stole the outside tank and cut the lines off at the wall at some unknown time in the past.

Thanks for the concern but right now insurance is the least of our issues. We are getting heat for when the volunteers are there doing the renovations over the winter.

Great job by you all for bringing a place back to life....kinda like rehabbing an old coal stove!! I bet the neighborhood will appreciate it.

I understand that insurance is not high on your priority list but I would recommend looking into it.

Whenever rehabbing a place I made sure to have it, there is a version for your situation where the building is not occupied and is a construction zone. At least it would cover any theft or damage while nobody is there which sounds like has happened in the past on the place. And with volunteer workers having different skill / common sense levels you never know what might get left 'on' or 'off' or 'open' or 'closed' as they leave.