<html> Hi, Joel! <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Susan, What a blessing to see your warm homey soapstone oven. </blockquote> Happiness is warm soapstone. Misery is cold soapstone, except in the summer. This wonderful piece of northern Europe came to live in my dining room last January, and is worth every cent, the whole multitude of them. A web search found me a German mason living outside Cottage Grove, Oregon, licensed to build Tulikivi (Finnish) soapstone stoves. I just about fainted from sticker shock, but once I saw how much he had to do, it seemed downright reasonable. Here's his website: <a href="http://www.oregonfiresides.com/index.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.oregonfiresides.com/index.</a><a href="http://www.oregonfiresides.com/index.htm" eudora="autourl">htm </a>I took a bunch of photos as he worked. The smoke has to go this way and that and up and down before it is allowed to get into the chimney. It leaves heat in the stone the whole way. A very old technology, which I hope catches on more in America. Some of it dates to Charlemagne. There was a shortage of wood in the late Middle Ages! Here's a photo of the next to the top layer, above the firebox. The hole is for a clean-out plug. The interior is kiln-grade firebrick, (American) which saved me big bucks over a soapstone interior, since the soapstone and hardware were hauled and floated all the way from Finland. oops -- you got me going about my stove! I have copious other photos if anyone is interested, but I'd better not clutter the list with any more. <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><snip> the maid was told to wash the ivories.   Whereupon the maid put ivory soap in a bucket and was happily scrubbing the inside of the piano.  Several months and many dollars later I asked if the maid was still working for them.    I'll never forget this line - "Yes, the poor dear never was too bright".  </blockquote> They sound like really nice folks ... <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><snip>  It was flu season and one of her students had .... onto the mid section of the keyboard. Still warm. I would have preferred she put the keys in the sink for that mess as your lady did.  </blockquote> I was called after a student had upchucked red beans onto the keyboard. I took rubber gloves and lots of cleaning stuff with me, but the teacher had already removed everything which she could reach. I took out the keys and carefully removed every last trace from them, the keyframe, the keybed, etc. While everything was out I got the whole interior nice and immaculate, since that was the teacher's normal mode of housekeeping. It sounds like I was luckier than you were. <grin> Happy New Year, all -- Susan Kline </html>