Today our fireplace is being rebuilt. I am beginning to think we are not meant to live in a home with a working fireplace...although both of our houses have had them. Our first house the previous owners had not used the fireplace. We had it inspected and we decided it would be safest to install a new liner...not cheap, but the right way to do it. The fireplace still never seemed to work quite right and as we continued using it, it seems as though the house filled with smoke. One time I was outside and noticed the chimney was falling away from the house and that there were char lines at the top of the chimney. Several thousand dollars later we had it all fixed, although we were informed that the liner (by then five years old) was done poorly, but things were safe. Honestly, I don't remember if we ever used the fireplace after that or not.
When we moved to our current house, the previous owners told us they had used the fireplace all of the previous winter...and it certainly would've been nice to have it last winter! But when Andrew looked into the fireplace after we moved in, he could see light...definitely not a good sign! Because our town is near almost nothing, we had trouble finding someone who would come and do a service call, but we finally found someone to come this fall. The entire back wall of the chimney needed to be rebuilt. At first I really didn't want to spend the money, but Andrew did a good job of negotiating. And since we don't live in town, I decided it's really not a bad idea to have an alternative heat source should the power go out. Granted, it wouldn't be great, but it would be better than nothing. The workmen are here today, and since it's finals week, Andrew and Robert will be home shortly. It certainly will be nice when this is done...and just in time for a cozy Christmas hearth!
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