I think that we can all agree that it is now officially a Canadian winter, and that it is FREEZING outside. While a fireplace is now more of a luxury in most houses, as a decorative piece you enjoy while reading a book or watching a movie on the couch, there was a time when the fireplace functioned as a means of survival. As someone who is always cold, I am in awe of the people of the past who lived day to day without a furnace or heated blankets or the option of a hot bath. All they had were fireplaces-- and oftentimes, not very effective ones at that. Were I to time travel and live a day in 212 in the winter of 1896, I would be permanently glued to the side of my fireplace, wearing all of the layers of clothing I owned. Going outdoors would simply not be an option until the late spring. Our house has two chimneys, one on either side. The left chimney would have went through the spare room and traveled down to a wood stove in the kitchen. The right chimney would have started in the middle of the living room downstairs, traveled upstairs and into the back room, which is Kyle's office, then through a pipe along the ceiling to heat the master bedroom at the front of the house. We can see where the chimney exit would have been by a dark smudge above the master bedroom windows. We think that initially, the upstairs would have been one big room, which sleeping spaces commonly were at the time. Whole families would share beds, which seems uncomfortable to us, but given their pitiful heating situation, it would have been the best option to stay warm in the night. Our two chimneys would have worked together to heat both levels of the house, though it is hard to say whether there would have been wood stoves on both storeys. Often, chimneys would open into two fireplaces, so that the heat could really be dispersed equally throughout the house. The earliest fireplaces were basically campfires set up in the main living space of a home. As you can imagine, this would have been incredibly smoky and dirty. Later on, people started to build their fireplaces in more enclosed shafts on the exterior of the house, which was much better than the open range campfire, and nicer to look at. In the 17th century, fireplaces became fashionable and people started to decorate them with carved mantles and tiled faces. However, the style got in the way of the function and these larger, in-set fireplaces were not very heat efficient. Finally, by the time our house was built, people started to build smaller openings in their fireplaces and use heat grates, which made a huge difference. While there are some remains of the fireplaces, like the crumbling shaft of a chimney and the chimney pipe openings in the floor, the actual wood stoves are long gone. However, eventually, we would like to put a fireplace in the living room again. There is just something so appealing about being snug at home with the warm glow of a fire. *Fun Fireplace Fact: Today, it is popular to hang a large mirror above the fireplace, but did you know that this trend began long ago as a safety measure? There was an uneasiness about standing or sitting by the fireplace with one's back turned from the rest of the room; the mirror enabled people to always be aware of what was behind them, even while warming their hands. **AND, a quick shout out to John: While we expected an ugly couch on the front lawn, you surprised us with a ploughed driveway! Thank you so much-- we really appreciate it :).
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About MeKyle and I just became new homeowners. The house we purchased is not what one would classify as "move in ready"; in fact, it is quite the opposite. Built at the turn of the 20th century, our Victorian style house is both beautiful and terrifying in its ancient status and will be a project in renovation. This is a documentation of our triumphs and lessons learned, as we deconstruct and reconstruct this house. The end result? A space that we can proudly say we created. Archives
December 2016
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