If this is your first time seeing Fostering a Grateful Heart, check out this post for a little explanation.
For this week’s edition, the freezing subzero temps and mountains of snow influenced me. Today, I am so grateful my house has a fireplace.
Growing up, we had a wood burning stove that we used to heat our house in the winter. That began my love of fireplaces. I loved (and still do!) the smell of the wood burning and the super intense heat sitting right next to it. I used to curl up in one of my parent’s barrel chairs to do my schoolwork and get super toasty.
Until the bees that were frozen in the logs, that we had brought in to dry out on the hearth, woke up. They moved slowly, but that didn’t matter – still terrified! Run! There’s a bee!!!
Moving on…
When Dan and I began to look for houses to purchase, I quickly realized that a fireplace, any variety, was not standard. I kind of thought most houses had a fireplace. However, most of the houses we looked at did not, and if they did, the other less-than-desirable characteristics would cross it off our list. (We we buying our first house at the beginning of the housing market crisis. We looked at a lot of foreclosures with serious damage.)
Fast-forward several years, and we are looking for our second home. When our friend sent us the listing, this photo was one of the main reasons we went to look at it (The primary reason being we were pregnant and living in a one bedroom apartment!). Be still my heart, a fireplace!!! Does it work???
It did, much to our surprise! We let that puppy heat up the house while we took our tour. We were sold and put in an offer that night. The rest is history, they say. 🙂
Today, she doesn’t look much different, less dusty, but not too different visually. It’s on my ever growing list of projects!
It is still a favorite feature for me. Well, me and the dog. This is by far his favorite sleeping spot now that the sun is not shining.
There’s just something about watching the flames flicker. It is mesmerizing and comforting. It reminds me of camp fires on vacations years ago and deep talks with friends and family. Even now, a fire in our backyard is a favorite activity of mine.
Sitting by the fire with a book and something hot to drink is by far my favorite winter activity.
Here’s the ole dog again, he loves him some heat!
There’s the piece of my home I am grateful for today (and every day it’s cold!). Not only a nice feature to keep warm but offers more decorating opportunities, a place to hang the stockings (a necessity, you know!), and a nice visual center for the room. I love having a fireplace. Do you have one?
Do you have any features you always look for in a house? Do you categorize them: must-haves vs. like-to-have? Is a fireplace in your top 10?
Leave a Reply