Feeling Warm

The fireplace guy came out today. It's working now and I asked to have my $75 reimbursed . . . . . . he agreed.

Yeah, We Got Gas!

And I'm not referring to the beans! Well, almost 4 years ago we bought this house. It's about 25 years old. One thing that we really loved about it was that it had a fireplace. It did look as though the fireplace needed some work though. We have very gradually remodeled the entire house mostly by ourselves but have hired contractors here and there when the job was beyond us. The house is pretty much done but we need to still do the laundry room, touch up around the new sky lights, and the fireplace. So around Thanksgiving my husband finally told me to just go ahead and order some fireplace doors. When we moved in the existing doors were trashed (glass shattered) and they were black and hideous shiny brass. There were beautiful ceramic logs set up in the fireplace but not connected. I figured this was to help sell the house. It worked. We carefully removed the log set and the old doors and the log lighter attached to the gas pipe. Then I cleaned out the fireplace it smelled like fuel so then I had a chimney sweep come to clean the chimney. Lastly, I applied river stones over the ugly red tile and filled in the crevices with grout. I also replaced the steel panels in the back with new panels and faux brick. That was 3+ years ago. The new doors would be a big investment and now that I am a SAHM and we have one income it just kept getting put off. So I ventured out to 3 different fireplace stores and finally found one that I liked and had them order some doors for me. I also asked if they could install the ceramic log set that came with the house but was never attached or used. The day finally came and the doors and logs were installed. The guy was almost done and then asked me if I knew where the secondary gas shut off was for the fireplace. I had never seen one and have seen just about every valve, wire, pipe, etc. in remodeling this house. He looked everywhere, I tried to help. We came up with nothing. So he said that he could complete the install but would not be able to test the fireplace for us. So $800 later, the fireplace still doesn't work. He recommended calling a plumber and said that we may have to rip some walls up to find the valve.

A few days later I called the gas company and asked them what to do. They also told me to call the plumber. I then called the plumber (who is in his 60's and not too eager to drive out for a hidden gas valve). He told me to call the heating and cooling company that we use. So I called them. They told me it would cost $75 even if they couldn't find it. Oh well, we wanted to use the fireplace and wouldn't be able to unless we solved this problem. So today the heating and cooling guy came and searched all over. Then he asked alot of questions. Then he disconnected the log set and cranked up the gas. Whallah, we had gas! He explained that the fireplace guy should have troubleshot to see if there was a problem in the log set. He then said that they should come out and fix it for free. I called the fireplace store and told them that we are up to $875 spent on this fireplace and it still doesn't work, and we're kinda runnin' out of money. They tell me that the installer can come out tomorrow and fix the problem for free. Now I spoke with my sister and my dad who both tell me that they should reimburse me for the $75. I am kind of scared to ask for that but think that it is fair.

I am excited to have the fireplace working. I don't know if I will mention the reimbursement of $75 when the fireplace guy comes tomorrow. I know that we won't use the fireplace that often (gas is pretty expensive and depleting) but it will be nice to actually have it working.