For years, my husband and I had been going back and forth about removing the old fireplace.
- We seldom used it, and when we did, it was so much work that it wasn’t worth using the fireplace.
We had to either cut up downed trees and bring it in to dry, or buy firewood that was expensive. We had to have the chimney cleaned and maintained, and there was usually a lot of smoke in the house. This past winter, we knew why we were vacillating about keeping the fireplace. There was a deterrent we couldn’t place a finger on. When our furnace broke, it left us in the cold for almost a week. Our furnace needed to be replaced. We had heat tapes on our water pipes, and we didn’t need to worry about them freezing. We ended up using the fireplace to keep our house warm. We had the kids camping on the living room floor, so they were warm all night. My husband slept in the recliner while I slept on the sofa. The boys thought it was an adventure, but we thought it was a pain in the back. We had a space heater in the bathroom, so it wasn’t overly uncomfortable in the house, except for when I had to go to the kitchen to get food. I was glad when the week ended and our furnace was finally delivered and installed. The boys were upset they could no longer camp in the living room, but we promised they could sleep in front of the fireplace once in a while. Last week, they wanted to invite some friends and camp in front of the fireplace. I couldn’t think of a reason to not allow it.