A friend and former schoolmate of mine lives in Kansas City from whence we both sprang. It was churlish of me, admittedly, to whinge about our weather - for the record it was cold, overcast and rainy - when hers is so much worse.
She mentioned that they had a fireplace and used it which prompted the question from me "Do they really provide heat or just a mellow beauty?" And she replied as follows - please meet our Guest Editor Carolyn Green!
My memories of when I lived on 69th Street, we had a huge fireplace in the living room and we spent the weekends with a BIG fire in the winter ... popcorn and TV (or games before that.) It kept the room toasty and I never remember anyone saying it bothered the original forced-air furnace. We had a new furnace put in when I was still in grade school ... and still used the fireplace, too.
When I was married and lived in Raytown we built a HUGE stone fireplace that we used. It had a BIG entrance so we could cook in it or just sit and enjoy it ... the only time it was really necessary was one year when we had a hard freeze and all the electrical lines were down and out. We ate hot dogs and chili, etc., whatever we could fix by putting it over the fire - hung it on the latch that opened or closed the flue...
The one we built in this house we had a glass-enclosed fireplace that sits out between our hearth room and great room. This one has an electric switch to turn it on ... it is beautiful and my favorite time to turn it on is when I'm chilled, have a cold coming on or just like the ambiance ... it is warm and if I lean against the glass I can get warmed up fast! ha...
I'd say the majority of people don't really know how to use fireplaces ... unless they grew up with them. Years ago at my in-laws farm in Southern Missouri they used wood in their in-house fireplace. It was a big metal round thing that vented up and out the chimney in the ceiling. They fed it chopped wood ... it smelled great - at least at the time, I thought it did ... can't imagine how hard it was to clean and paint walls, etc. in that house, but they did redecorate often ...
That's my fireplace history ... I love the memories ... and I enjoy the fireplace. I'm not as in love with taking the glass out and washing it inside and out and putting it back in ... but that's because I'm older and not as agile ... good thing I'm used to it! We've been in this house 21 years in April.
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