They make me feel all warm and cozy inside. I imagine grandmothers offering me home-made lemonade and me falling asleep after Sunday lunch with a good book in my lap. That's pure fantasy, of course, as it never happened.
Our first home, twenty something years ago, was a Victorian terraced cottage which I attempted to make look like that fantasy. But it didn't quite fit with the jet-setting life-style we were involved in at the time. Guitars and Marshall amps, suitcases, flight cases, leather jackets and uncouth hairy types drinking tequila rather cluttered up the image.
And now, have I managed to create that fantasy of cozy chair, fireplace, matching tea set and relaxed charm?
Have I heck.
This is what I've got.
A brick fireplace I swore would be the first thing to go when we looked at this house prior to purchase. I can wield a sledgehammer alright, just can't afford a builder to replace and rebuild everything.
And the gas fire doesn't even work. A week after moving in here, a gas plumber told us it was unsafe and we could never use it. So there it sits, the ugly old thing, laughing at us.
My fantasy. Maybe one day.
~Live-Well-Laugh-Often-Love-Much-Posters.jpg)
9 comments:
Oh, Dorothy, your dream sounds very much like mine!
We did have a fireplace at our old house, but this house only has a woodstove, which is cozy, but not nearly as nice as a crackling fire.
I told Brian the other day that I would like a fireplace somewhere in the house. It will probably be a gas one, not for wood, but I can live with that for now. We'll see.
I have always LOVED fireplaces. I have wonderful childhood memories of sitting in our family room in front of our fireplace on a cold winter's day . .. I would read or crochet etc . . .now that I have lived in Florida since 1986 I still have to have a fireplace and it probably surprises people we do use our many times throughout our mild winters :-)
We have a coal stove, with a door, that we keep on in the living room so that we just keep one room really warm, and it is lovely. I crave cosy armchairs like those, or like the ones on the front of the 'Five in a Row' manuals. Maybe one day.
In our last house, we spent much time in the kitchen and family room, and bought a cord of wood each winter to burn in our regular fireplace.
Now we live in the forest and have more wood than we could ever imagine--but we have NO fireplace!
I had to laugh about your gas fire. Not long after we moved into our house, we were also told it was unsafe (a result of me feeling drowsey all the time and calling the gas people out) and had to have it removed so now we just have a hole I use as our 'wine cellar', trouble is I don't drink!
Dorothy,
Could you remove the gas fire and replace it with a few logs for a cozier look? Or is it more complicated than I'm imagining to disconnect it.
Renee, It would cost about £100 ($200) to remove safely and I have NO IDEA what is behind it. It may be one really ugly hole.
I can always think of plenty to do with 100 quid, like pay bills, buy shoes for my son, who grows out of his shoes on practically a monthly basis atm etc etc.
One day!
LOLOLOLOLOL this post was so funny since I didn't predict what you were leading to, the broken gas fire.
We have a fireplace, they let in as much cold as they heat up, or something like that. We put a wood stove insert into it and that has helped although it is quite ugly.
Plus let's be realistic here, if the chair was that close to the fireplace with a cozy quilt hanging off of it, it would in fact be a fire hazzard. Especially with a cat or dog around to pounce on things and send them flying off the chair. We kept a glider rocker chair near our wood stove inserted fireplace last winter and the cushion melted in two places.
In the top picture all those leaves hanging would've caught fire and in the bottom picture the chess pieces would melt.
So therefor, you are far safer, if less cozy, with a broken gas fire.
I guess we could learn from this that beauty is not always warm? I don't know! I hope you have your cozy dream spot someday soon and that it is quite safe and beautiful and warm.
Love this post....I also dream of the first photos and tend to live more in the last photo.
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