One or two steps away from "poof!"

My chimney sweep came today, and there is a good reason why you have a professional come and look at your chimneys.



I had planned on replacing the fireplace insert in the great room. Based on what he found, I've flipflopped in my plans. The great room fireplace, while inefficient, apparently has a totally clean, very high-end chimney that could handle the biggest woodstove I could plunk in there. So I can burn my pretty little fires in the totally useless fireplace, and at least enjoy the ambiance this year.

However, the fireplace insert in the den, which I rely on for heat, is very inefficient and has a lousy chimney. So creosote builds up fast. All the creosote in that bucket came from just the one chimney. There were some sizeable chunks up there that he pointed out were at the point of possible ignition.

I will keep the fireplace as is in the great room. Instead, I'll replace the den insert in addition to getting the chimney lined as planned. I guess I'll go stove shopping again on Saturday!

And now I'm glad I never fired up that stove.