Fireplaces in Austin housing (Howe, Cool: renting, new house, neighborhood)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

I just find it odd to see so many fireplaces in the south. Can someone address this? Where are people getting their wood? It doesn't seem like there are that many forests but I could be wrong. I'm not trying to bash...I'm trying to figure it out. Plus, instead of starting another thread I wondered about laundry rooms. When did a big laundry room go out of style? I rarely see a nice laundry room when searching for homes.

[Trainwreck20]

If I were personally designing a house, I would leave out the fireplace...not for lack of firewood, but due to the lack of cold. As for fuel, the oak makes excellent firewould and there is usually some available from some construction or land-clearing (although you probably have to buy it). Cedar (aka Mt. Juniper) makes a really 'poppy' fire that burns faster and soots up a chimney something fierce. Many (most?) new houses have a fireplace that is on natural gas. If it is constructed properly (fans etc) it can add enough of the heat to the house to make it somewhat efficient cost-wise and add some 'ambience' to a room, but I think it probably isn't work the effort to me and I would rather have the wall space.

As for laundry rooms, I haven't seen one w/o one in a long while. My old '77 contruction house had a mini-one, and I am pretty sure all the houses in our ~10 y/o neighborhood have them (although I obviously have not check them all ). Ours is probably only 6'x10' or 5'x12' or something, I would guess off hand.

[love roses]

The man my husband gets firewood from gets it from his other job,construction. He takes what they clear because otherwise it just gets trashed. My bil gets his from a friend's property after he does brush clearing or clears for a field.

[Moonlady]

We didn't put a fireplace in our current house. I like the flexibility in the living room not having to decorate or arrange around it. Also, wood piles attract termites. However, I have thought about buying one of those electric ones! There's plenty of wood here - most people don't build fires that often. We may not have forests but we have trees!

I miss having a laundry room - I have a laundry closet off the main hallway. I think builders generally tried to put the square footage where you spend the most time but I'd love to have a nice size laudry room in my next house!

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots

I just find it odd to see so many fireplaces in the south. Can someone address this? Where are people getting their wood? It doesn't seem like there are that many forests but I could be wrong. I'm not trying to bash...I'm trying to figure it out. Plus, instead of starting another thread I wondered about laundry rooms. When did a big laundry room go out of style? I rarely see a nice laundry room when searching for homes.

Most of the homes here have laundry rooms. If you are just looking on line you won't see them though.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

I like fireplaces too but I have this vision of no trees in Texas. I'm thinking I'm going to pleasantly surprised. It's funny what kind of pictures your mind can create about place you've never been. I think it has to do with all the westerns I've watched too. Also, I know there are laundry rooms but I'm talking about real laundry rooms! The ones where you have a big sink, cupboards, and room to leave an ironing board up. The laundry rooms I've seen are soooo small. Well, thanks for the replies. It did strike me strange about the fireplaces. I've seen more of them in homes in Texas than I do up north.

[atxcio]

I think they are mostly for show, and not efficient for heating at all (at least around here). It does get cold enough to enjoy a fire sometimes, I think I've used mine about 6-10 times this winter. But mostly for show and to burn up some pruned oak logs.

Since fireplaces are the norm here, I'd be a little hesitant to buy a house without one. It's functionally pretty useless, but it does provide a focal point in a living room/great room (helps detract from the REAL focal point, which is not so attractive).

When I lived in DFW, most of the fireplaces in our neighborhood seemed to use gas logs... I think that was an anomaly... but there is plenty of wood here in the state. The eastern part of Texas is a forest about the size of Ohio. In fact, we have so much that Texas A&M used to cut down thousands of trees each year (but plant new ones) just to douse them in jet fuel and watch them burn (actually a pretty storied tradition) -- Aggie Bonfire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

[jobert]

When you build a new house, there is usually an option to include a fireplace. Our house was finished last spring, and we elected not to have a fire place for the following reasons:

1. cost - the developer wanted to charge an extra 8K for it.
2. space - this would have taken out a window and about 10 sf of our already small living room.
3. utility - why have one when it rarely even snows here? Get a chiminea and put it on your patio if you want the fireside experience.

The large laundry room is considered "back-of-house" and takes away from the public zone of your house, because well, impressing people is all that matters, right? (read: sarcasm)

[jobert]

Originally Posted by Moonlady

We didn't put a fireplace in our current house. I like the flexibility in the living room not having to decorate or arrange around it. Also, wood piles attract termites. However, I have thought about buying one of those electric ones! There's plenty of wood here - most people don't build fires that often. We may not have forests but we have trees!

I miss having a laundry room - I have a laundry closet off the main hallway. I think builders generally tried to put the square footage where you spend the most time but I'd love to have a nice size laudry room in my next house!

I bought an electric fireplace, but plan on putting in a gas one. The electric just doesn't feel real enough for me. The mantle and electric fixture within are interchangeable, you just need to pipe in gas from the closet location (dryer, stove, etc.)

[readymade]

There are PLENTY of nights (in the "winter) that go down to the 30s. I LOVE a good roaring fire, and I won't buy a house w/out a fireplace. Ironically very few houses (that I saw) back in Boston had fireplaces. Or, they had them but they were bricked up.

When we had one (we're renting now), we used those logs you buy at the supermarket. They're "clean burning" and don't leave as much residue as regular wood. And they don't put as many chemicals into the air. I can't remember what they're called, though. It wasn't this, but it was similar: Ace - Ace Tree: Heating & Cooling: Fireplaces & Stoves: Fire Logs & Fire Starters: Jarden Firelog® Java-Log® Crackling Fireplace Logs (41525-05000)