Gas fireplace

We decided to put a gas fireplace into our living room. It’ll help the heat pump keep up when it’s cold out or if the power goes out, and plus… it’s a fireplace! Having it in has really created a gathering spot in the house; the ducted heat pump’s thermostat has it mostly not heating at all, so the extremeties of the house cool off. This would sound like a problem, except that it’s created a cozy area to gather in. It is really nice.

Carole sketched some drawings and we pulled permits to modify the exterior wall; to save a few inches since this was in a walkway, we wanted to remove a stud, put in a header, and recess the unit as far into the wall as possible.

First off, this was going to make a lot of dust, so we marked out the perimeter for a drop cloth wall.

And I put the dust collector on casters and wheeled it over…

Turns out there’s a lot of plaster in a wall. The drop cloth to close the room off from the house was a good idea.

No more plaster!

Filled the cavities with Rockwool, which is a fire block. Much easier to work with than fiberglass batts I put into our attic. Then lots of carefully cut studs and toe nailed screws.

We had the HVAC contractor who did our heat pump do the gas and venting for this.

Some pneumatic brad nailing…

babe approves!

and (white) paint!

Next step is some touch up paint on the wall, but other than that it’s done!