A couple of Saturdays ago, while my father-in-law and Matt assembled some deer stands with Baxter’s help…

I took advantage of the log splitter my FIL had brought with him and cleaned up some firewood that had been lying around.

Never mind that we still don’t have a working fireplace. Tree management is ongoing here.

In the category of wishful thinking, let’s take a minute and talk about this fireplace, though, shall we?

I have always wanted a wood burning fireplace. When we moved to our little house in the city, the fireplace in my parents’ family room was one of the things I missed most. Redoing our fireplace has been on my list since we moved in. But it’s been delayed due to finances.

We discovered quickly that making the fireplace what I envisioned wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought. I wanted to pop out the insert so that we had a beautiful open hearth. And I wanted to reface the whole thing with fieldstone.

Unfortunately, the chimney won’t accommodate an open hearth. I don’t understand exactly what’s wrong with it, but it’s not entirely right, even for the insert that’s there.

Fixing the chimney means rebuilding the whole fireplace as though we were starting new. Great for getting exactly what I want. Not so great for the wallet.

Matt, my wonderful, accommodating, frugal husband, thinks that we will be able to scrape together enough money to do the fireplace this year. I’m a little more skeptical.

But let’s not let a little thing like the budget derail this post. Let’s talk about what needs to be done.

The biggest question is the location of the fireplace. You’ll notice in the picture above that it’s off centre (look at the beam at the apex of the ceiling). This actually isn’t a bad thing, in my opinion. By centring the furniture arrangement on the fireplace, we have room to walk around the edge of the living room to the dining room. If we shift the fireplace so it’s centred, passage to the dining room will be a little tight.

What do you think? Should we centre the fireplace?

My plan for the new fireplace is roughly the same location, roughly the same dimensions. The biggest change will be to make the fireplace itself symmetrical. One continuous wide hearth across the bottom. No weird bump out on the left side. A rustic wood mantel (I have some great old beams in the barn) at one continuous depth. Fieldstone face. Open hearth.

I know the insert is more efficient and is a great way to heat the house. However, we are not going to heat this house with wood. Our geothermal system works really well and costs us very little. This fireplace is more about ambiance and appearance than function.

What would you do with the fireplace if it was yours? Are you a fan of the ’70s asymmetry? What would you face it with? Brick? Tile? Stone? Plaster? Would you keep the insert? Or would you get rid of the fireplace altogether? What’s your opinion on centring the fireplace versus leaving it where it is?