Meet Napolean, my fireplace

The house has this original 1900s-ish era fireplace. You could see it in a lot of family pictures. But admittedly, there wasn't much special about it except it's age and emotional significance. Those are both important factors to be clear, but when making decisions about the future of those house... they don't necessarily win out.

Whenever I approach the steps of this project, I often say "we" did something, or "we" are planning something. But - this time the expression of "we" is actually accurate. My brother helped me pick out a fireplace. He did a great job and even taught me a new car game on the 40 minute ride to the store.

Original Plan:

• Keep the fireplace, restore it as a wood-burning fireplace
• Add another fireplace to the "family room" side, make it gas

Hiccups:

• Price // The original chimney flu was taking up a lot of room in the upstairs hallway. So, when we got some estimates on the repair and shift of it... they were not cheap.
• Layout // When we brought in the second house designer / architect to reassess the layout, it became obvious that the fireplace was super off center and a hinderance to good flow

New Plan:

• Add a double-sided fireplace that will serve both living areas

Jim recommended that I check out Andersen Fireplace in Abington - which I obviously did. I was slightly reticent to do it because it felt far but Jim hasn't let me make any bad decisions yet, so I was not starting now. It only took 25 minutes to pick a fireplace. It was actually pretty easy. There were two options and one was $10,000. So, it'll be Napolean. We went with this one because:

• It was 24 inches deep. Kind of creates the facade of a far deeper fireplace than I would be able to if I did back to back single fireplaces. 
• It wasn't $10,000

Some fireplaces have the option to swap out the fake logs for different options like rocks or driftwood. I spied a BEAUTIFUL birch log option on our way out - but it is not a fit for the Napolean, which is fine. We'll just put a decorative bin of logs next to it and call it a much more affordable win.