187/365 Chimneys

They're useless, you know. Each of our houses has three, at least, some have four. I have two that have fireplaces attached, and a third that must have had something to do with the kitchen originally but now is just a vestigial ornament, like the appendix. They do me no good. They are unlined, or lined with ceramic tile (the house is 1905 so ceramic tile, I read, was en vogue to line chimneys by that time, but who knows?). So I can't light a fire in them. Wait. I can light one fire. But never a second because my house will probably burn down.

If we ever wanted to light a fire, we'd have to get the chimneys lined and in one case, probably rebuilt, at least part of it. We could do a ventless gas insert, but that's not why I want a fireplace. I am not at a stage in my life where I can sit in the big leather chair and stare at a fire, real or gas or whatever. I want a working chimney to have a backup heat source, like a wood stove insert or standing wood stove. I have fear of being without electricity for 5 days in the wintertime and having to expend a great amount of cash or effort to find a hotel or a relative's house where we can stay. I'd rather stay in my own house, and knowing what my friend Astrid went through in the winter of 2006 when that very scenario occurred, well, I'd rather be prepared.

It would only be one chimney, probably the one in the dining room because that room doesn't have a mantel and is the most centrally located of the chimneys. It runs past our room, too (we have a foursquare house, which is like a child-designed floorplan of four rooms on the first floor, four rooms on the second, triangle shaped attic on top). I don't want it to replace our nicely efficient lovely new HVAC system. I just want it for when we need it (or when we want it, frankly). Living in the city means wood is not easy to come by for free, it's not like we have a back lot of 100 acres to thin out. But we do have a giant mulberry tree's worth of logs well-seasoned in back, and there's always some tree coming down.

I want to do it. But it's not cheap. And there are other things on my list, like a first floor bathroom that doesn't suck, or the Great Separation of the attic into smaller bedrooms. And the front porch (sigh) needs to be on the list. But this? This is taking a spot in the top 5 big projects. It's not smart to put it off, I have a hunch.