Fire

I talked before about the new mantle I made for the fireplace. Here's a follow up story about burning down the house by using the fireplace. Polly has a fear of fire and whenever we have a fire in the fireplace she insists on closing the chain curtain in front of the fire. I of course say that's not necessary because nothing is going to catch fire and the wire curtain cuts down on the radiant heat from the fireplace. So when I leave the living room she closes the fireplace curtain and when she leaves, I open it up.

As added protection Polly bought this special fireplace rug to lay on the carpet in front of the fireplace. I think it was the first fire that we had with the rug in front and a big ember must have jumped out. Well the fireproof rug didn't catch fire put it did melt.

This wasn't satisfactory so I tore up the wall to wall rug in the living room and rolled it back. Glued some matching tiles to the bare cement floor, grouted them to match the fireplace.

After I added some tack strips, I relaid the rug back down and got a floor that wouldn't melt or burn.

Beauty isn't it. Now the argument is about the smokey fireplace. The house pretty air-tight and the fireplace doesn't have any air vents to pull in outside air. So a little whiff (I say whiff, Polly says house full) of smoke sometimes enters the house - that's fixed by opening a window next to the fireplace a little bit - that fixes that . No it doesn't, if you turn on the stove vent, it overpowers the fireplace draft and a little smoke comes back in. There has to be a solution but I don't know what it is yet.