Prompted by a commercial I heard on the radio today, I’m wondering how other people feel about fireplaces. I don’t like them; I don’t really want one in my house, mostly because they smell terrible (I hate the smell of woodsmoke), but maybe I would like one if I had one, in spite of the smell. I think that having a fireplace in a house is a selling feature even though I’m not keen on one; would it be one for you? Do you have a fireplace? Do you use it if you do? Do you want a fireplace? Would you buy or not buy a house based on if it has a fireplace? Wood-burning or gas? Electric? Opinions?
Yes, I like fireplaces. My wife complains loudly if I start a fire anywhere else inside the house.
My house was built in 1849 and has 4 fireplaces. I like them
StG
Party pooper. 
My last house had a wood-burning fireplace with a blower and I loved it. I really, really like the smell of woodsmoke though. Plus hardwood is very cheap around here. I used it frequently in winter - pretty much most days I at least had a fire in the evening if I was home. It was a nicely-constructed fireplace and with the blower I could leave the thermostat in the low 50s even on bitterly cold days and the main/open part of the house would stay in the mid 60s.
My current one does not and I’ve toyed with the idea of putting in a woodburning stove (like this.)
like em. I have 2 modern gas fireplaces, so they are not open. Nice warm fire on a wet seattle winter night…
I do like fireplaces. However, not only are they noisy, woefully inefficient things which you have to keep constantly stocked with fuel, but my childhood home burned down because of an open fireplace, and the whole family could’ve died (if not for a convenient door to outside in my parents’ bedroom), so I do not recommend them.
I think I’d like one if I lived somewhere with bitter cold.
My part of the world is much more of a “fire pit” kind of place on cold nights.
I grew up in a house with 2 of them. My own home does not have one but I wish it did. I do however know a lot of people that have them and never use them. Either they don’t have the forethought to stock up on wood before the winter, don’t know where to get it, just aren’t that good at building fires, or just don’t like fires.
The newer air-tight ones are much more efficient. Fireplaces that you see in 20 or 30 year old homes are cost-neutral; the extra warmth that you generate from the combustion is negated by the rush of warm air up your chimney. However, while sitting in front of a fire you sure appreciate the radiant heat.
So, new ones are good. Wood stoves are great. But you still need to purchase and stack wood, and bring it in from the outside in the middle of winter. Which for some reason females are unable to do.
The house I grew up in had one but we weren’t allowed to have fires in it unless it was fairly warm out side. When it was colder the fire would burn down and warm air would get sucked out of the house long before it was safe to close the flue. After I moved out my parents had glass doors installed which you could close to minimize heat loss but they rarely used the fireplace.
My dream fireplace would be a round 360 degree access one in the middle of an unheated room. Get it nice and toasty with a fire and then when it burns down go back into the heated part of the house.
Only real fireplaces.
One of my hobbies is looking at real estate. It bugs the living crap out of me to see up north lake homes or homes on a bazillion wooded acres, and the damned thing has one or more gas fireplaces and zero wood burners. One house I looked at, which was on 204 acres, of which about 120 were wooded, had THREE gas fireplaces. God, that’s stupid.
My best bud Little Guy, who died in 2006 at age 20, dearly loved to curl up on top of my winter coat in front of a fire. Sometimes on cold winter nights, I’d set up the coat and a fire just for him, coming back occasionally to tend the fire and the kitty. He was so happy.
That’s a very powerful positive memory that connects me to wood fireplaces.
I like the smell of wood smoke, and I like sitting in front of a bonfire or fire pit, but ever since a house down the street from me was completely gutted thanks to a fireplace fire a few years ago, I’ve said that I’ll never live in a house with a fireplace. Maybe not the most rational train of thought, but it’s the truth. The idea just freaks me out.
I love fireplaces. We’re buying a house without one- that will have to be corrected one day. An outside ire pit will have to do for now.
I love 'em! But, wow, they require a lot of work.
My sister’s oldest pine tree died; thank goodness for chainsaws…
Damn right! 
Think about this post when you’re fighting around the fire pit at some point in the future. 
I hadn’t even thought about how dangerous fireplaces can be - that makes me even less keen on them. Would a gas one be as dangerous? Is it the coals and sparks and uncleaned flues that make them so dangerous?
I love them, but I live in South Florida. If I had one, I could use it like 4 nights a year.
The ire pit sounds like something you’d use for Festivus…
:rolleyes: I’ve spent a damn lot of time moving and stacking firewood over the years so I’m sure surprised us women aren’t capable of it.
I like having a fireplace. The majority of local people I know who live in houses rather than apartments have a woodstove or a fireplace. It’s pretty close to a necessity when the power companies in this state think people are unreasonable to expect the power back within 48 hours of a storm.
Love them, if they’re wood, not gas. Have one. We badly need an insert because our house is very open with very high ceilings and all our fire heat either goes out the chimney or up into the loft.
And I’m a woman and I actually do most of the wood lugging in this house.
Uh, I’m female, and my last house, which I lived alone in for two years was heated exclusively with a woodstove. I stacked 10 face cords of wood that were dumped in my driveway the first year, and humped enough wood from the shed to the house to keep warm even in subzero temperatures every day from fall to spring. The second year, I had to move 15 face cords of wood in my pickup, 1/2 a cord per load, from the spot down the road where it was cut and split by my neighbour to my woodshed and stack it, and then from the shed to the house as needed. It was a lot of work, but I loooove heating with a woodstove. There’s something special about building a fire and getting it burning just right so the house is toasty warm and then clamping down the vents so it burns long and slow, leaving just enough glowing embers to start a fire again in the morning.