Who here has a wood burning fireplace?

[busymom]

DH & I are thinking of installing a wood burning fireplace into our home.  (Hey, it's been on our bucket list for a long time.)  What do you love or hate about your fireplace?  And, what would you change on yours if you could?

[Sharon]

I had a wood burning fireplace in my previous home.  It was rarely used because of drafting issues.  The fireplace expert that came out said it was because of proximity of the fireplace to the cold air return for my furnace.  Instead of the smoke going up the chimney it would be pulled back into the house.  It would have required some fairly major home renovation to correct the issue.  All of my neighbors all said that their fireplaces didn't draft well either.  It was the way the builder did thing (cheaply) in that subdivision.

[buystoys]

We have a wood burning stove.  I love it!  It keeps our whole home fairly warm in the winter.  So warm, in fact, that the heat rarely comes on.  The stove pipe needs to be repainted and it's got some damage on the top, but it works well.  We'll definitely replace it if we ever need to.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

My wife loved the wood burning fireplace until she got tired of bring the wood up from the yard. Also the time to get a good fire then sometimes leaving the room for a long time. We converted to gas last year. They make nice, almost realistic ones with an on/off remote. She still misses the real wood.

[TheOtherMe]

I have had several wood burning fireplaces in homes I have owned.  Two I replaced with wood stove inserts during the energy crisis of the 70's.  Those inserts did a great job of heating.

When the Denver area went to No Burn Days help with the brown cloud. I pretty much quit using it.  I know the last two places I lived, I never used either.   

One of the houses had a wood burning stove when I moved in and I used that all the time.

While I enjoyed the ambience, I didn't like the maintenance.

I do love my gas fireplace.

[kadee79]

Having had several in various places I've lived...first make sure you have some kind of cover over the top of the chimney so you don't get chimney swifts in there...they can drive you nuts in the summer.  Second, if I ever build another one, it will have a thermostat controlled blower on it.  I had one like that & it was great.  The one we have now has a blower, but not thermo controlled, so you have to shut it down at night.  Also, I highly recommend having an ash pit below the fireplace...just open a little door in the floor of the fireplace & push your ashes down there...then go outside to clean it out as needed.  So there needs to be an outside access to the pit.  This keeps a LOT of the dust from the ashes from getting spread into the house.
And finally, use those ashes...put them in your flower beds & your gardens.  And they also are a great help to get unstuck from ice/snow.  I used to carry a 5 gallon bucket (w/lid) in my trunk along with a little shovel.  Those ashes got me out of a ditch & up a hill more than once.  

ETA...You can also buy the brushes & the poles & extensions so that you can do your own chimney cleaning.  And make sure you have a good draft that YOU can control & closes tight.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I've had both, and I prefer wood burning stoves. I think wood stoves are safer than wood fireplaces. 
We even put a wood stove into a fireplace in one house. 

I don't like the mess that the wood pile makes, but I'm willing to clean that up to have the dry heat. 

[Tiny]

I have a love/hate relationship with my fireplace.
LOVES:
It's a "wow!" focal point of my living room.
I can burn really big chunks of wood in it.
It's got a little trap door at the back of it so you can push the ash down it and into a clean out in the basement.

HATES:
It's basically a year round "open window" the 75 year old damper doesn't seal closed.
When a fire is burning the rest of the house gets cold.
It has a large opening with a mesh fire screen - I don't feel comfortable leaving a burning fire unattended for any length of time.
It's a pain to have a fire at night - because I feel I have to wait for the fire to burn down before I can go to bed - I can't close the damper and so I have an open window for a lot of hours until the morning when I can close the damper.   I bought a special metal "screen" to cover the opening to the fireplace to make me feel less paranoid about going to sleep with burning embers in the fireplace. 
Fire wood is a pain to store out side.
Fire wood in the house is messy.

I really like the little trap door to push the ash down. I don't have to carry ash out thru my house in a bucket. I don't have to vacuumn out the fireplace.

While I like the large fireplace - I kind of wish it was a little smaller and maybe with glass doors. I think I'd feel less paranoid leaving the fire unattended for a while during the time it was going.

I don't like the way it makes the rest of the house cold (as in the heat doesn't come on as often so rooms get cold).  

I have an expensive, will last a lifetime spark arrester thing on the top of my chimney (it's code to have one) - every time the chimney sweep guys come they are like "you should replace the spark catcher thing it's old and they rust out" and I'm like is the one that's up there rusting or cracked/broken?  No?  I'm good no new thing.   They want to replace my more "permanent, long life" thing with an off the shelf one that will rust out in 3 or 4 years that they got at Home Depot.   No thank you. 

[tractor]

I don't, but a fireplace was a requirement in every house I grew up in. My father, grand father and great grandfather were brick/stone masons and fireplaces were their livelihood. My last childhood home had a multi-level fireplace system with one on each of the three floors, it was wonderful.

Like you it is my dream to have one again. I live in a log home, and I NEED a fireplace. However, the cost to add one in, the increased home insurance rates, and the other liabilities that previous posters have mentioned, have all but killed that dream. I begrudgingly stick with my temperature controlled, gas fireplace, and wish for the day when I can sit by a roaring log fire with my Bourbon on a cold, snowy night...