As ever, people see a good idea and think ‘ooh, why don’t I do that myself and save some money?’ I know, I have done it myself with some things. However, sense has to prevail and you need to consider your skill set and knowledge when it comes to something which is potentially dangerous. Would you let just anyone fix the brakes on your car? No, me neither. So why do people trust items on well known auction sites? Before we went over to Bio Ethanol exclusively people would phone us up saying they had bought a stove off eBay etc and various parts were missing or broken and could they buy the relevant part from us. I would patiently explain that they were 80-100 years old and no spare parts are made anymore. Many would end up re-selling it and buy a stove from us. Move on to now and every man and his dog seems to think that all you need to do is to put a Bio Ethanol box inside an old stove and all is good. This is so far from the truth and it potentially lethal in every sense of the word. Bio Ethanol needs oxygen and airflow to work and be safe and I am obviously not going to give away all the things we do to re-purpose a wood burner or coal burner but they are extensive and incredibly thorough so please don’t be tempted just to save a few quid. Your life is worth more than that.
Well, what a few months it has been. We have been so busy and bought some really special stoves, real one offs, which have disappeared very quickly. We still get such a buzz when we come across something really different and special and it’s always so great when our clients are as enthused by them as we are.
We put our heart and soul into finding our stoves and then such a lot of work goes into restoring them, with Tom working his magic so the best reward is having someone buy them who really appreciates them
So a big thank you to all our customers. We have recently introduced a little ‘Goody Box’ as a thank you to everyone who buys a stove. No I’m not telling you what’s in them. There’s only one way to find out!
I can’t believe it’s the beginning of February 2023! How did that happen so quickly? We relocated to our new premises in September last year and we feel so lucky to have found such a lovely place. Everyone who has been has mentioned the lovely atmosphere here. The downside has been that we effectively didn’t have a workshop for two months so we have got really behind with restoring stoves, coupled to an amazing selling season. The consequence of this is our stock is really low and we are desperately trying to play catch up. Hopefully we should be going into a quieter phase so we have a chance.
On a sad note we had to have a lovely 13 year old dog, John PTS last Friday so home and the office now seems very quiet. It was the right time but it doesn’t mean we are not heartbroken.
Guess what? Warner Brothers got in contact with us in April 2021 to see if we could help them source 2 very specific stoves for a new Harry Potter World opening in Tokyo in 2023! The first, a Godin was relatively simple but they also wanted an enormous British stove which features in the Potions room in the films called a Portway Tortoise No 6. After many months I tracked one down and now it’s about to wing it’s way to Tokyo. Amazing, our stove in a Harry Potter exhibition. Feeling very excited.
I cannot believe that the last time I wrote on the blog was March 2020. We had no idea that we would still be in measures against Covid 18 months later. Fortunately for us, we have been able to get to France this year but it has certainly been a very steep learning curve with Brexit regulations to cope with alongside all the safety measures for Covid. Still, we have a great selection of stoves at the moment and the move over to Bio Ethanol is continuing . I imagine with the current energy price rises which are about to significantly affect all of us, Bio Ethanol, will become and even more attractive choice. Though there continues to be a steady demand for wood burners. All good news really. Here is a particularly good, clean example of Le Non Pareil stove by Deville in a really fabulous dusky pink enamel.
Well, when I wrote my last blog entry I certainly didn’t expect a large proportion of the world to be in lockdown because of Coronavirus. Seems like we are playing out a disaster movie. All we can do is be scrupulously clean and try and look out for one another whilst it lasts and be very thankful for our wonderful NHS and hope they stay safe. We have had some real stunners so far this year and here is another. A beautiful Louis XV by La Chaboche. The workmanship is just amazing. It comes complete with the front trivet which is unusual as it is often the bit which gets lost or broken. Can be used as a conventional solid fuel stove or you can use it with Bio Ethanol if you don’t have a chimney.
Sorry for the massive delay but it was an incredibly busy second half of the year, coupled with a few family catastrophes. Anyway we have all survived it and now, on this last sad day of belonging to the EU, I have to wonder how it will affect our country and specifically, our business. Over the past 6 months we have tried to find some more extravagant, very special stoves and they have always sold fairly quickly so you have clearly liked our slight diversion. From Tom’s point of view, it has had its pluses and minuses, it has given him some head scratching moments but it has always been interesting to work on a totally different stove as many of the stoves we get are the same, we nearly always have Lilys, Chauffette, Pied Selles, Le Non Pareils etc. So keep watching our facebook page for our new stoves as we usually post on there before they go on our website. This is just one of our special stoves, just lovely, called Red Star which is unusual for a French stove but then you see the little copper star on the top and it all becomes clear. We wish you a peaceful New Year.
Well what an exciting summer so far. More sun than we have known in many a year, Gareth Southgate has managed the impossible and the England team have actually won a game on penalties and the Government is falling apart! It's all going on. From our point of view Bio Ethanol sales have overtaken conventional sales this year. People have caught on to the fact that they are clean, efficient and no nasty, expensive installation costs and building regs. Perfect. They don't suit all of our stoves but unless they are physically not big enough, we can usually adapt them to work. Check them out, now everyone can have one of our stoves.
When we go to France we always try to find a real head turner as well as the usual Deville Lilys, Godin Chauffettes, Pied Selles etc. We don't always succeed but we certainly managed it on the last trip over with this lovely stove by Deville. We bought this stove from a lady who we had made an appointment with us on the trip before but we had got no response when we rang the bell. She later got in touch to apologise and tell us she had fallen asleep. We decided to chance it and made another appointment to buy a Deville Lily. When we got there and agreed the purchase of the Lily she mentioned that she had 2 other stoves for sale and would we be interested. This was one of those 'other stoves'. What a result. After a lot of hard work taking it completely apart, a lot of polishing, this is the end result. What an absolute stunner. What makes me laugh is the faces on the cherubs, they look quite old cherubs is all I can say. Fantastic brightwork and detail in the globe amongst other things. A real find and not to be missed as we have never had another.
Well we got back from France just yesterday, on the overnight ferry. I love going to sleep in France and waking up in Portsmouth. I do find the journey in the day fairly tedious and the idea of a cruise just fills me with absolute horror, just so boring.
This trip we mostly did Paris and the Loire, where we used to live. It was a good trip as we came back with 15 stoves, two of which are absolute stunners, one of which is just so unusual and I have certainly never seen one like it before and it has the original very ornate tool with it which is an added bonus. I love it when people have keep everything together as they so often lose bits and pieces, original tools are always a bonus.
Apart from these two stunners we got lots of Chauffettes, Pied Selles and a couple of Lilys which are all great as they can be used with bio ethanol as well as their intended fuel which is great at the moment as we are finding such a high demand for bio friendly stoves. They are outselling conventional stoves about 2:1 at the moment.
I'd better get on and get them all booked in and get stuck in so we can get them turned over for you. Spring is nearly upon us so have a great time.
I can't believe it was June when I last wrote the blog, time has just shot past. We have been very busy at work and we also moved house last week so things are a bit manic so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. We are finding more and more people are buying our stoves to use with bio ethanol rather than conventionally. This is great as it means everyone can have one and you are not limited by having the have a chimney. People are surprised by the amount of heat emitted by the Bio Ethanol, it really is impressive and of course, no mess, no effort. Just sit back and enjoy.
Well what a week this has been, absolutely boiling hot, hottest week in June since 1976. I'm not a great lover of anything over about 22 degrees but especially not when you are working. Needless to say, not a lot of restoring has been going on this week. Also it's not brilliant for stove sales but at least it gives us a chance to catch our breath and get some stuff done. We think we have the best stock selection at the moment that we have ever had, definitely something for everyone. Some real stunners. Have a great Summer.
Well what a 6 months it's been. We have had some great write ups in some of the glossies and we have been so busy, we have been to France 6 times on buying trips since September. We have recently sent stoves to Iceland, Switzerland, USA, Greece and Ireland among other places. I love the thought they one of our little stoves is nestling away in pride of place in someone's house in a far flung country. We never imagined that our business would grow into this when we started in when we got back from France. We were lucky enough to have two of the nicest customers you could wish for who bought a stove off us over the internet and came to collect it and bought 6 more!! for their house in Scotland. We have become quite good friends and I look forward to their emails. One brilliant one said they had had "a really lovely purchasing journey". What can I say?
Well this year has just flown by, admittedly a lot of the middle of the year was taken up with our daughter, Lucy and her A level results and subsequent Uni application. Finally she is settled in Surrey Uni studying Law and we can concentrate on the business. Which is just as well as it has been absolutely mad for the past few months. We have been over to France often in search of lovely stoves and always try and find the unusual and special. Our efforts have been rewarded as we have just had the busiest two months of our lives, just manic, but good fun and have met some great customers (and a few, not so great) and realise we just love selling our gorgeous stoves to gorgeous, appreciative people.
We have just been lucky enough to have three page feature in a fantastic new magazine called Reclaim which is full of great articles on a variety of things ranging from our fabulous stoves to antique baths, umbrellas and even church pews. Hopefully this will get our name out to a broader audience and let more people know about our gorgeous stoves. So don't forget to buy a copy and check us out.
What a lovely change this weather has been, sunny and bright if still a bit of a chilly wind. I was so fed up with the relentless rain over the winter, it's so hard to motivate yourself to so anything when it is raining non stop. Anyway, we have recently returned from France. We went on a buying trip to the Loire region which is where we used to live and got to stay in one of our favourite hotels La Fleuray at Cangey, in between Blois and Amboise for 2 nights which was great as we usually stay in a different hotel each night. Staying 2 nights made it feel like a proper break and not just work which was much appreciated and needed as we have been working hard the last year. We found some really great stoves, completely different to our current stock. Now comes the hard work of restoring them and listing them for sale. We already have 5 out and tomorrow we collect another 4 from the sand blasters so they need finishing and will look great. We have 3 stripped ones which we have never had stripped before so that is exciting as it really shows the detail and we are finding more and more clients loving their simplicity and crispness. Wait and see what you think.
Well Christmas is less than 2 weeks away which is a bit of a blow as I have very few pressies so far. We are closing for Christmas on Friday 18th and will only be open by appointment until January 4th 2016. It has been a very busy year and totally exceeded our expectations. We would like to thank all our lovely customers who have bought stoves from us over the past 12 months and wish all our customers, new and old a Very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year. See you in 2016.
Well Barney the storm is on his way out and it's been pretty grim. I was at work all morning by myself and Lucy, our daughter arrived at lunch time and asked why we had a gaping hole in the roof/ceiling!! We are based in an old grain drying barn and the ceiling had small skylights which have since been taken out but the roof is lined with sarking boards and the skylight hole is still in the boards but they have slates over then on the outside so once the slate slipped we were exposed to the elements. Strangely, given the stormy night we had, we had no damage this morning. Anyway, I believe that now we have the stormy weather over, the cold weather is arriving shortly at the weekend. This is the time of the year when your wood burner really comes into it's own. How great is it to arrive home from work, in the dark, and light up your wood burner and sit back and watch those flames, just lovely. Almost worth having cold weather
Well we have been so busy the last couple of months. We both went buying in France in late September then I went by myself for the first time in ages last weekend. Tom just couldn't afford the time off from restoring them to come with me. It was a lot of miles in 3 days but well worth it as I got some lovely stoves, a few of which we have never had before which is always exciting. We have lit our log burner at work the last couple of days as it is definitely getting nippy and a promise of things to come. Time to get the logs in and stocked up ready for those cosy winter evenings.
Well, I have finally got my head around the new software (with a lot of help from Barney at Pixel & Dot) for our website and am fairly pleased with the result. I have tried to keep it clear and easy to navigate as a lot of our clients remarked on the fact that our old one was simple to navigate and find what they were looking for. We felt we needed to update the overall look of the site and I hope you like the new look. Let me know in our new comments box below if you have an opinion.
Apart from that we have been really busy trying to keep up with demand which has been exceptional and on our last trip we tried to get some different stoves and certainly succeeded but they are going to take a while to come in to stock as they require patience to really bring them up to their potential. Keep an eye open. Meanwhile enjoy this lovely Indian Summer we are having.