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| Everything the other posters are saying is (of course) true- a fireplace can make one room hot and leave the other rooms cold. But don't Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater- MOVE YOUR THERMOSTAT!
Some further thoughts:
Think carefully about the raised hearths that most of the photos show. When I was in remodeling, I had several people with the raised hearths that wanted to 'dress up' their fireplace. With the raised hearth, there's not much you can do to make it look a bit more formal or traditional. It will always be an informal kinda thing. Maybe you're fine with that.
A fireplace can complicate furniture placement. A fireplace looks kinda dumb if you're not facing it- sorta like it's over in the corner, waiting for the bus (or something). You also want to be facing the TV, so now you have two things that you want to be facing, and that's where the challenge can come in.
Certainly the new types are much easier to fire and maintain plus more efficient, but I always felt that schlepping in the wood, getting it to burn, hearing the snap, worrying about sparks, and smelling a little smoke was part of the romance of a fireplace- made me feel like a 'pioneer'... | |
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fire places
