Some questions for those with a fireplace in their home...

[MsKiwi]

The house is beautiful! I love the porch.

As far as a chimney sweep the cost varies but the ones I've dealt with are clean, courteous and do a fabulous job. They also will let you know the "real condition" of the chimney. I would count on your first cleaning being the highest , after that yearly maintenance is fairly reasonable.

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...I'll be sure to take care of it, fiance used to be a volunteer firefighter and cousin is a firefighter...

My grandfather was a professional firefighter who spent most of his career supervising volunteer companies.  During World War Two he worked at one of the Manhattan Project sites (the top-secret project to make an atomic bomb).  It was of course a big secret what the place was for, so a local joke said it was a gigantic factory to make the front halves of horses.  When somebody asked, "why only the front halves?" the punch line would come: "to be shipped to Washington for final assembly into complete horses because they always have plenty of the other end there!"

[haulingthescoreup]

Someone mentioned something about the smell from wood-burning fireplaces. I love the smell of wood smoke, and you can burn different types of wood (hickory, oak, apple) to get different smells. No softwooods (pine and other evergreens) --they're creosote factories.

The smoke shouldn't be backing up into your house to where the smell is that bad. If it is, the chimney might not be drafting as well as it should.

True, wood-burning fireplaces aren't as efficient as some other things, but if you're willing to put a recirculator with a glass screen on, you can get a surprising amount of heat. (Minus the smoke smell, too.)

We've used our fireplace in the finished basement during many a power outage, and it's great. Even when we don't need it, I don't think that anything can beat the look and the sound (and the smell!) of burning logs.

[Anonymous]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
Someone mentioned something about the smell from wood-burning fireplaces. I love the smell of wood smoke, and you can burn different types of wood (hickory, oak, apple) to get different smells. No softwooods (pine and other evergreens) --they're creosote factories.

The smoke shouldn't be backing up into your house to where the smell is that bad. If it is, the chimney might not be drafting as well as it should.

True, wood-burning fireplaces aren't as efficient as some other things, but if you're willing to put a recirculator with a glass screen on, you can get a surprising amount of heat. (Minus the smoke smell, too.)

We've used our fireplace in the finished basement during many a power outage, and it's great. Even when we don't need it, I don't think that anything can beat the look and the sound (and the smell!) of burning logs.

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+1

[Anonymous]

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@MattH wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

...I'll be sure to take care of it, fiance used to be a volunteer firefighter and cousin is a firefighter...

My grandfather was a professional firefighter who spent most of his career supervising volunteer companies.  During World War Two he worked at one of the Manhattan Project sites (the top-secret project to make an atomic bomb).  It was of course a big secret what the place was for, so a local joke said it was a gigantic factory to make the front halves of horses.  When somebody asked, "why only the front halves?" the punch line would come: "to be shipped to Washington for final assembly into complete horses because they always have plenty of the other end there!"

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That is a funny story, Matt!  My grandfather was a FDNY Captain, but I never heard of any stories like that one! 

As for the wood, I think I'll try it out and see how it goes. I was kind of excited about it to be honest. I've been around a lot of homes with fireplaces but never had one myself and I was always envious. Especially around the holidays.  This fireplace has a round hearth and I've looked into one of those glass enclosures (I'm such a dork, can't remember what they are called) but it would have to be custom and in my search it seemed that this was going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000-5,000. So, I'm thinking that's probably not happening. 

We do have gas heat so I could convert down the line, but I thought it would be better to have the real wood. Hmm, I guess we'll see how much we mind it. 

[Anonymous]

If you can find mesquite to burn then I think you will LOVE the smell.  We have a deer lease down here which is covered in the stuff and every time we make the 8 hour drive I, personally, feel that the ability to haul back a trailer full of wood is worth more than any of the meat we may or may not bring back

Love wood burning fires, I just don't think you get the same cosyness with gas.

Your house is adorable! 

[Junejer]

To me, the best of both worlds is to have a gas starter that burns wood. I have had this on my last two houses. My house never stinks after burning wood. And you can't beat the crackle of wood burning. So, UpUpUp, if you decide to do any switch over, that would be my suggestion.

[Anonymous]

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@Junejer wrote:
To me, the best of both worlds is to have a gas starter that burns wood. I have had this on my last two houses. My house never stinks after burning wood. And you can't beat the crackle of wood burning. So, UpUpUp, if you decide to do any switch over, that would be my suggestion.

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Sounds like a great compromise. Thanks for the idea. 

I can't wait to be able to use it!! 

[Junejer]

Yep, it's great. No need for kindling and all that's necessary for starting a fire. Place the logs on the crate, turn the key for the gas to start, click your bic and voila--fire!