For those of you that don't know, I love real fireplaces.  I love the smell, the sound, the heat, the popping and even the burn spots on my carpet when those pops go a little too far.  Unfortunately, when I lived in the Denver/Boulder area a few year back smog and pollution caused the city to issue "no burn" days to keep pollutants down.  These only happened when it was cold and snowy.  Apparently you could only enjoy a nice roaring fire during the summer.  But gas fireplaces were allowed, so they were getting more and more popular but I hated them. 

Fast forward to today, minus 2 years.  When my wife and I found our "dream home" it was perfect, except for one thing; it had a gas fireplace.  Fortunately, there were a lot more reasons to take the house than not, so we took it.  Now, our house is on a hill so our first floor is actually our top floor.  There's the kitchen, dining room, the living room and the the fireplace.  Go downstairs and you have the bedrooms and access to the back yard.

So, winter is upon us and it's FUCKING COLD outside.  Now, if we had a real fireplace, I'd be outside in the back yard chopping wood on an almost daily basis to keep up with old man winter.  To add insult to injury (remeber I'd be weilding an axe -injuries are implied), I'd have to walk the wood all the way up stairs thru the master bedroom up to the fireplace.  Remember, it's on the second story, which is actually the first floor... I can't explain it any better, deal with it.

Now with our LOVELY gas fireplace all we have to do is flick a switch and viola, a bright, warm fire.  I fuckin' love it!  Now, if they could just build in a sound card so that every time I turned it on it popped I'd be in heaven.  For now though, it's perfect. 

As I look over now, there are 2 dogs and 3 cats camped out near the fireplace.  They love it too.  And if I had to chop wood to keep them warm, I'd never get to enjoy the fire with them.