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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
It's too bad the decline of Western fireplaces left Dick van Dyke out of a career that sooted him perfectly. And now I hear he wears a 3-piece soot to his new job... as some sort of attorney?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Like Jackie and BYB, i too have an old fashioned fireplace, and the last of my good aged oak lying there waiting for an occation. Once its gone, i only have maple left to burn--
Unlike BYB-- i don't buy wood-- there are enough trees pruned or cut down or blown down in storms to keep me in wood-- it just means hauling it away, drying it, and splitting-- yet another reason not to have fires too often. Most of my maple has only been drying for a year, and has another year or so before it is fully seasoned. I do have one oak log (about 30" in diameter left) but i have to split it to use. One of these days....
and as for the cat-- good riddance! I finally got my daughter to take her cat back in November -- she had moved out 22 months before that, and i hated having a cat!
BYB--watch for local highway improvements. They are adding a HOV lane to I-495 (long island Expressway) and have cut down many of the weed trees that have grown up-- and some very nice ones too. the contractor cut the logs into 2 to 3 foot sections, and stacked it-- with a sign free fire wood. It went quickly! and i am sure he saved some money on carting fee's.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
About places to light a fire : Bob is right on the money about central heat and fireplaces ... and Jackie: get a reputable sweep to check out that unused chimney. Trouble could loom!
I always loved fireplaces until I spent a year in the Sierra Nevada where the entire heat for the house was a wood stove. It had doors that opened so I could enjoy the "fireplace" aspect. The Vermont Castings stove gave great heat, was easy to bank so the morning fire was easy to build up and I had no complaints about its efficiency but after a year of dealing with the wood dust a woodstove causes, splitting wood and paying for cords of wood -- three to get through a year -- it lost its charm.
If the heat around here goes off I have a neighbor who has a passive solar house and my son's house is a late 1700s center chimney Colonial with working fireplaces in every room! So I can do without a fireplace and all the mess, thank you very much!
wow
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
All this talk of fireplaces and chimney sweeps reminds me of that hilarious scene in Dorothy Sayers' Busman's Honeymoon where the chimney sweep tries to free the ancient chimney of its "sut." If I remember correctly, Lord Peter (or someone) is eventually forced to fire off a shot from a blunderbuss to get the chimney open. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
If fireplaces are disappearing from regular use, I wonder how long the "Santa Claus down the chimney" story will last (if, indeed, it's still current)?
And how will he arrive (by e-mail???) <grin>
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Clearly, paulb, you have missed both the movie, The Santa Clause, and the Twisted Christmas song, There's Something in the Chimney.
In the movie, we learn that Santa carries a fireplace with him, to access all abodes. And in the Twisted Christmas song, we learn that Santa got stuck in the chimney and died, anyway. HO HO HO
Because there's something in the chimney
And we don't know what it is
But it's been there all year long
I'll be waiting up for Santa
Like I did last year
But my brother says
He's already here...
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I lived in three houses that had fireplaces, and every one of them would fry your face while freezing your fanny. I never felt rich enough to buy one of the glass enclosures.
The big problem with chimnies used to be creosote building up near top especially from lazy idiots banking fire with green wood. The large chimney in the kitchen would have top so nearly closed a cat could not have climbed through, let alone a sweep. I have seen flames shooting up twenty feet out of a chimney on fire, and if mortar had failed between any bricks lower down the pressure would send jet of flame sidewise into woodwork, and whole house would burn down.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I had one once that got most of its draft from the garage and had side vents that sucked air from the room, ran it up the sides of the fireplace and spewed it out at the top. Heated the better part of the house quite well. Heatolater I think it was called.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
As I remember it : Heat-A-Lator was the name and it was standard in houses built in the late 1950s and 1960s when fireplaces built into new homes. And it did exactly as described and is still doing it in those houses still in use.
wow
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I had a friend who had Heatolater that had air circulation passages get filled up with lint, caught fire, blew burning lint and soot all through house. What a mess.
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