After a few false starts our fireplace is finally in place not only just in time for Christmas but also for the cold minus 30 degree temperatures we have been enjoying here in Alberta. This picture is a bit dark so you can’t really see the web design in the cast iron at the top of the oval but it’s an attractive fireplace that is reasonably suitable for an Edwardian house.

This is a Valor fireplace – specifically designed for the many gas fireplaces in heritage homes that need replacing. The measurements were within 1/3 of an inch of the original opening. Although certain things can be done to compensate for slightly different measurements, what cannot be changed is the depth of the fireplace itself. If you have an original wood burning fireplace depth is not an issue – but we only had 9 inches to work with.

What is especially nice is that this fireplace works on 4 double AA batteries and, because it isn’t hooked up to electricity, it can work during a power outage. Batteries usually last a year but I expect that ours will have to be replaced sooner because we use the fireplace every single day.

We chose the coal rather than logs because they looked more natural and chose the plain black cast iron backing rather than the brick back because the brick colours would have clashed with the colour of the concrete fireplace.

The best thing about this fireplace is that it did not require changing the scale of the fireplace to the surround – so. if we couldn’t use the original, this was a second best. Although this project was more expensive than we originally expected (sound familiar) it was well worth it in the end.