Fireplace works too well

I went to flush my toilet this morning and noticed that toilet paper hadn't gone down from the previous flush. Hmmmmmmm....

I made sure I had the plunger at hand before I flushed again, and sure enough, the water started to rise. It went down when I attended to it with the plunger, but once again, toilet paper emerged. Hmmmmmmm...

I opened the door to the cellar, which, conveniently, is located in the bathroom, and BRRRRRRRRrrrr! It was cold down there! Because, of course, the furnace in the cellar has not been running because the fireplace has been keeping it plenty warm upstairs near the thermostat. My toilet was having issues with icy pipes, probably where it left the house and met the ground.

So I turned on the furnace, boiled some water, flushed that down the toilet, and resolved that I won't wake up to rebuild the fire at 4:00 am when it normally goes out, and will just let it die down and have the furnace kick in for about 4 hours. Then I'll crank the furnace for a nice warm shower in the a.m. and revert back to the fireplace after that.

Nothing is simple.