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Gut it
Kyle & I bought our current home a few years ago. We were fortunate to find the property, but it needed a lot of work.
While we’re very happy with how the finished project turned out, Kyle likes to joke that our remodeling experience is only limited to a complete gut job.
Maybe that’s why I feel our used boat is never clean enough – I didn’t get to gut and rebuild it!
Winter Wonderland
Moving to NWI, the winters are much colder than Indianapolis. For the last few years, the lake effect snow tends to skip over our house. Oh sure, come January and February, we’ll have several feet of snow, but for the most part it gets cleaned up in a few weeks. However, we definitely feel the cold wind from the north running down the full length of Lake Michigan.
Short video from winter 2021 showing fallen branches, hanging low and more snow falling outside our house.
🔥Starter
The pictures from the real estate listing showed a real fire in the fireplace. And while I didn’t love the gold fireplace surround, I was prepared to live with it. Of course, after I spray painted it black to match with the decor of a cozy ‘cottage in the woods’.
I’m a pro
Most of our rehab projects we complete on our own without licensed professionals – after all Kyle is a licensed engineering professional! However, we did call in a fireplace expert to inspect and clean the fireplace before using it. The house was not lived in for several years, so we wanted to make sure there would be no disasters when using it the 1st time.
Too much 💰
Unfortunately, we found that the fireplace liner was cracked and missing the mortar. It would cost a lot of money (~$9k) to get it working again. Yikes!
Exit strategies
We knew a working fireplace would only enhance the resale value of our refurbished home. Plus Kyle was dying to use the wood from the dead trees that were cut down a few years ago. And with our home being so small, a real fireplace has the possibility of heating our home this winter. Eventually, we found a new wood-burning stove insert that could be installed in the old opening for less than half the cost to replace it.
I’ve got the perfect solution
After months of research, measuring (and remeasuring) to make sure the new stove would fit in our fireplace opening, Kyle purchased the Regency® Alterra® CI1150 Wood Insert from Heat’n Sweep near Lansing, Michigan. He picked it up this summer, and stored it in our garage temporarily until it was installed a few months later.
Tips for Buying a Fireplace:
- Check (double- and triple-check) the measurements
- Choose a style (I prefer modern / contemporary with simple, straight lines)
- Review features (ie wood-burning, multi-speed blower, energy specs, etc.)
What’s the worst that could happen
Both of our parents had wood-burning stoves in homes while we were growing up, but this wasn’t something we really paid attention to … except I do remember smoking out the living room because we forgot to open the damper – oops!
We recognize that there are dangers that may come with owning a fireplace. We’ll never leave the fire unattended or burning overnight.
Light it up🔥
Thankfully, Regency Fireplace Products put together this 1-minute video on How to Light & Maintain a Wood Stove Fire.
Energy Savings Calculated
Our furnace puts out 60,000 BTUs per hour, and our fireplace is rated to handle 55,000 BTUs per hour. This definitely has the possibility of heating our home, but we’ll see how it actually goes this winter…
Unsolved Mysteries
While we’ve only used the fireplace a handful of times this year, we’re still not sure of the following questions:
- What tools are needed
- Did we chop enough wood
- How much wood will we use
- How do we keep the living room clean
Do we really need more tools?
Because we don’t know what tools we need, we’ve opted to use a 5-gallon Menards bucket to haul the wood into the house. Luckily, we got a pair of heat-resistant gloves with our shrink-wrap gun used on winterizing the boat that we can use while loading logs into the fireplace. And we did purchase an ash vacuum cleaner, but I haven’t used this yet so I can’t comment on the effectiveness.
Stay calm & keep clean
If anyone has tips on how to keep the area around the fireplace clean, I’m all ears. This will be our 1st season with our wood burning fireplace and we’re looking forward to crackling fires and keeping warm and cozy all winter long!
Can you help?
Do you have suggestions for our unanswered questions – especially about keeping the living room clean? How do you stay warm in the winter? I’d love to hear from you. Please share your feedback in the comments below.
– Kara from Zeke Life
Live like Zeke
You’re such a good boy!
