Stuck!

I know I've mentioned this before -on lots and lots of previous occasions -but I live in an old house!

My house was built by my grandparents back in 1903 at a cost of around $1,000 -give or take a bit (I think that was the figure I saw on the original deed but I may be wrong there too!). But at any rate, the amount of money it cost them was tantamount to being not a small, but actually a very large fortune in those days!

And don't get me wrong as I write now and then about this old house, because I do love the place. Really and truly, I do! But that love is based on sentimentality issues, not things that endear the place to me for decorating ideas, or comfort or feasibility, etc., of features of the house.

One of those "features" just happens to be the fireplace in the living room and this, believe it or not, is not one of my favorite things here!

Knowing what I do about the original layout of the house, I'm thinking the fireplace must have been an added feature several years after it was built because right now it is situated roughly in the middle of the west wall of the living room. But, if it had been put in there from the get-go, it would have been a bit of an odd location then as it would have been almost at the end of what was then the living room wall! (The living room, as it is today, is long -about 22 foot in length actually -but when the house was built, this room was actually two rooms then -living room and dining room. Where the dining room is now, used to be the kitchen back then!

But anyway, what's to complain about a house that has what is really a beautiful fireplace in the living room anyway? Well, it is a beautiful piece of work, I'll give it that much credit. But as far as being a useful entity in the house, it definitely is not that because you see, about 75-80 years ago, it was discovered that this item is indeed, very much a fire hazard as the tinder box rests on one of the main timbers of the house and apparently back in the days when it was being used for a form of heat, that tinder box charred that main timber of the house! Lovely news, huh? One of my uncles discovered this tidbit of information sometime back in the early 20s and advised my grandparents and others in the family to discontinue use of the fireplace, immediately! (That it was realized during that decade the fireplace was a hazard leads me to believe that it was built during that decade sometime because it was about then too that the coal furnace was put in the basement, so that kind of stands to reason there then, doesn't it?)

Anyway, there are times I wish it didn't exist simply because of the size and amount of valuable wall space it eats up -space that could be used to be able to better position furniture and such. For my part, I'd much rather have a corner fireplace and I'd really appreciate it too if it were one that would work safely too! But things being as they are today -decorating, remodeling money and the like -is low on the totem pole of priority things here so I doubt very seriously that a revamp along those lines will ever take place, at least not in my lifetime I suppose.

So, guess we'll just have to make do with what we have and Mandy can save up till she retires if she wants to change the positioning of a fireplace in this old barn of a place!