Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Up in smoke.

We got a new wood burning fireplace insert. Not only will it help reduce our gas bill (hopefully) it is a great tax write-off ($1500 credit from Uncle Sam).

We have wanted a wood burning fireplace since we moved into our house over 4 years ago. A local dealer came out and measured our fireplace and we waited to hear from them about the installation. Well, after trying for two years to get them to call us back we gave up and put our dreams of Christmas by the fire, Thanksgiving by the fire and cold, wet nights by the fire..well on the back burner. I still can't believe that those people never returned our calls. I suppose they didn't need our business.

Then this year we decided to start shopping around for another dealer. Joe found a guy out of Illinois who was willing to work with us. Imagine that, a person in this down economy who actually wants to make a buck. Wow. (Note sarcasm here.)

We thought "Yay! We'll open Christmas presents by the fireplace this year!" And, "Yay, we can roast marshmallows or enjoy a nice glass a wine at the end of the day while roasting our little toesies." We were so excited.

After putting down a cash deposit of a couple thousand dollars (yeah, we're made of money, don't you know? Sarcasm again people.) We couldn't nail down an installation date. The guy started making excuses, giving us the run-around. What is UP with these fireplace people!!?

Finally, Joe gave them an ultimatum. Do the installation or we will cancel and demand our money back. Well, they finally came through after some more miscommunication with the installer. We had the box installed this week.

It still isn't finished. They "happened" to give us the wrong face, so there is a 9-inch gapping hole above the box. ARGH.

Joe lit the first fire and within 30-45 minutes our whole house was filled with smoke. Cough, cough. Smoke even in the basement. Something not right here, right? ARGHH.

Everything in the house smells like smoke. I googled it and it will take quite awhile for the smoke smell in things like curtains and sofas to go away. Oh yay.

To try and kill the au de camp fire smell, I decided to make potato leek soup today. And burn some vanilla candles and soon I am going to wave some poopy diapers around. That should  kill the smell, don't you think? And if there is one thing we have in abundance, it's poopy diapers. Hey, but that is another blog post... 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Luck with your fireplace! We have a wood burning stove and still have trouble regulating it. A number of times we've had smoke come back in and had to open the windows and use all sorts of odor-remover products. I've thrown my share of water buckets into the fire! I think there is an art to getting it started just right, and it has something to do with just how freezing it is outside! But once it's going it is great!
Fran

Daddio said...

thanks Fran. The smoke is the least of our worries. I just hope the whole house doesn't burn down!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
-quyen

Lisa said...

Once it gets fixed, I'm convinced it'll be awesome! Oh, and we're knocking down some more trees come spring so if you want firewood in the future, let us know!