When we bought our house, the home inspector told us that we should have the gas fireplace looked at before using it, because it seemed to have a small leak. We just turned it off and chose not to use it for a couple years because we were afraid that it was going to be really expensive to fix it.
This year, when the weather started turning cold, I was determined to actually use the fireplace. It is such a focal point in our main living space, and you can see it from the kitchen as well. Plus, because our house has really tall vaulted ceilings and we haven't gotten around to replacing all of the windows, it can get pretty darn chilly on really cold days.This is what the fireplace looked like when we bought the house:
And here it is now:
So,
I called a fireplace guy, and $100 dollars later, we were ready to fire it up. That was seriously the best 100 bucks I have spent on our home in the last year. We use the fireplace on a daily basis, and it just completely changes the atmosphere of our home. The fire not only looks really nice, it puts out quite a bit of heat. The kids love to turn off all the lights at night and have a dance party in the living room by firelight - it's super cute.
Now I am obsessed with somehow having the same warm and cozy feeling in our Master Suite. Because the Master bedroom is directly over the garage, it can get really cold in there - and even though I love the wood floors we had installed in there, that floor is freezing in the morning! There are a lot of options, but I think the easiest is an electric fireplace that we can just plug in and turn on. I am looking for one that fits the style of our home, and that has a realistic-looking flame and also generates heat.This super-modern one is pretty cool, and can be mounted on the wall or in the wall between the studs:
It can also be used with or without the heat on, which is nice.Or we could go with something a bit more traditional looking, which might be better for resale - not that we are planning on selling, but as a Real Estate agent, it's always part of my decision-making process:
I will update this post once we have it ordered and installed!
I think that no matter what we decide, we have definitely increased our home's value and appeal by having the fireplace functional and easy to operate. If I were going to put it on the market, I would make sure to have the fireplace on during every showing, and also in the property photos and video.
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