We Didn’t Burn The House Down. Yet.

A fireplace was not at the top of our wish list for our new home. Mainly because we knew we wouldn’t use one.

In fact, at one point, when we were considering building, we removed the fireplace from the floorplan because we were certain we wouldn’t use it that much. But the house we ended up finding and loving, was already completed. With a fireplace.

Fine. No big deal. It looks fabulous in the space. We just probably won’t use it that much.

But last week, fall finally arrived here in Georgia, and the evenings started feeling rather chilly. And we’ve been holding out on turning on the furnace. So I suggested we flip on the fireplace to take the chill off. Truth be told, I really just wanted to sit directly in front of it, until I was warm, and then run to hide under the warmth of our bed covers.

So I flipped the switch (it’s a gas fireplace … that’s all we have to do) and voila!

It took approximately two minutes for me to decide that I was going to like having this fireplace.

And then, three minutes later, our fire alarm began SCREAMING at us.

We jumped and ran as fast as we could to open all the doors and windows, and then all we could do was sit and wait for the alarm to stop.

And that additional few minutes was brutal.

We’ve since learned that our fireplace needed an initial burn off period … like an hour with the windows and doors open to remove any dust and residue.

This would have been excellent information to have received at our new home orientation.

In the meantime, I’m stockpiling blankets. Because I haven’t decided whether or not I’m brave enough to flip that switch again. These all look pretty cozy:  

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