A while ago, I posted about Carlos and I debating whether to buy new windows or a wood fire place insert. As you recall, we went with installing new windows. We (I) thought it was the best decision because it would give us the best return when selling the house. However, after having the windows for a while and not really noticing much if any difference in our house being cooler/warmer, I regretted the decision a bit. See, new windows does in fact provide a good selling point, but they do not provide a quick return on investment nor do they make a big difference in the house feeling cooler in the summer or warmer in the winter.
So after much consideration, we decided to look for and purchase a wood fireplace insert. Carlos did a lot of research and after looking for inserts online and visiting a couple of local places, we went with one we found at Northern Tool & Equipment. There were many inserts, but the ones we liked the most were over $1500, which was out of our budget.
We purchased the Century Heating Wood Stove Fireplace Insert. Below are a couple of pictures:
Wood stove insert with surround
Wood stove insert without surround
And now for pictures of our fireplace, before it was painted and before installing the wood insert.
Fireplace before painting
Another before shot
Fireplace close-up
Fireplace after painting it and with wood insert:
After
Excuse the mess! I will share some better pictures soon!
We used the wood insert during the winter, and we love it! We also love the money it saved us = ) Using the wood insert made us have to look for firewood, but Craigslist does not fail. We found so much that we have wood for next fall/winter!
I’ve always liked winter, and now I like it even more because I can be really toasty inside without spending much money, yay!
~ L.