Orange Roof on the Avenue: Playing with Fire

Last year at the Junior League’s Holiday Market Silent Auction, I bid on (and won!) a chimney sweeping. I know you are thinking 'How unexciting is that?'. Well, you know how Silent Auction’s go... They are dangerous. I’ve become quite a pro at attending (and overspending at) Silent Auctions, and I have determined that all Silent Auctions follow a very simple mathematical formula. With every glass of wine you drink, your determination to outbid the hussy who guards the slip of paper holding bids for the bouncy house birthday party, increases at an equal rate to the confidence (false confidence) that you have enough money in your checking account to pay for it all on the spot. Unless you are drinking vodka, and then your determination increases at twice the rate of your imagined wallet size. Suddenly, a laser hair removal package becomes far more important than the new throw pillows you’ve been saving up for. In my own defense, the laser hair removal package was rather nice to have, even though I didn’t read the fine print that disclosed it was for your upper lip and chin. But I must say, my face is as smooth as a baby’s bottom these days.

Back to the main topic.. Our fireplace had not been swept in the 5 years I'd lived under the orange roof, and by the looks of it, I’m not sure it had ever been swept, so I figured that it was probably time after I, with such rugged determination, outbid everyone for that coveted chimney sweeping.

The analysis came back that we have several cracks in our chimney that pose a fire risk, and unless fixed, we shouldn’t use as a working fireplace. The “fix” was a staggering $1,300, so I said “No thank you, kindly” to the man with the top hat, and went on my merry way. It doesn’t really bother me that we can’t strike up a fire in the winter now. Every time we do, the den winds up smoky and smelling like a barbeque pit for a week. However, David loves bringing in wood and creating a blaze in our fireplace (it’s one of those manly sorts of things that I just don’t understand), so he was rather sad to hear the news. We discussed buying gas logs, but running the gas line all the way to the den would be costly and I’ve decided I don’t really want to put anything more into this house that we can't take with us when we go one day.

So, now we have an empty fireplace that is completely blah. I’ve been searching for ways to spruce her up, but am feeling a bit stumped.

Should I keep it classic & simple?