Altering a load bearing wall

If you want fire in the house, you could just set the house on fire!

You won't get a 2nd chance, but it will sure be magnificent!!

And not overly romantic and cozy. 

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

This isn't the first thread you have waxed eloquently about your desire for a fireplace. 
 

I'd say rustybugkiller must have missed that, but this is GRM. Since all GRM threads ignore what the OP is asking for and offer all manner of alternative (whether the OP wants it or not), Id just say this is GRM! 

 

I think you are making some wise choices in pursuing what you want in a manner that is balanced and makes good sense. Congratulations! Enjoy it!!

Thanks.  I think my next course of action (after maybe doing a CAD of the wall and fireplace to make sure I like it) is to just take the TV down and start cutting drywall to see what's in there.  If it isn't load bearing (which I'm starting to think it isn't) I have the freedom to just frame it up how I want and go from there.  Whatever I do will likely just be new studs every 16 with a 2x8 header and jackstuds.  That will be stronger than what I've seen in there from the borescope.

Worst case scenario is that I pull the drywall, don't like what I see, and put the drywall back in and say "la la la, didn't see that E36 M3 show, doesnt exist."

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I've spent the last year and a half trying to find anything other than a fireplace that will give me what I want and haven't found it.  Above all, I really hate the look and real estate required for a freestanding stove.  Also the permitting and requirements for clearances to a freestanding stove make it a non-starter.

These days they all come with proprietary chimney parts and aren't designed to do anything but close the door and make heat, which I don't need - especially when my highest gas bill this winter was $46.  I want a fireplace.  I don't want a stove, I don't want a stove insert to convert a fireplace into a closed-face, glass-front heat maker.  I want a campfire inside my house.  Period.  I want to have a fire on a warm spring evening because I want a fire, not because I want heat.

A stove or an insert is great at making heat... which I don't want.  That means I close a door and make the house hot.  Heck, I'll have a fire in a fireplace in July or August just because I want a fire.  I WANT most of the heat to go out the flue so I can enjoy it more months out of the year.

The only answer would be an insert with a massive front door that can be burned when open... which doesn't exist.  You get a huge plate of steel with a tiny glass window in a door that is big enough to fit a log through, and it must be closed to burn because it's designed with flue diameters and venting that can only control the heat if the door is closed.

This project is 110% aesthetic and 2% practical.  I want to have fire in my house.  I want a romantic evening with SWMBO in front of a crackling fire while listening to Diana Krall and drinking wine.  I want the radiant heat to take the edge off a snowy morning with my coffee while watching the news.  I have access to about 50 acres of free, standing-dead Ash, Locust, Oak, Walnut, and Maple, along with 124 acres of free wood in WV and another 200 acres at the hunting camp.  

I want this:

I DO NOT want this:

And DEFINITELY not this:

Ok... if I'm being completely honest, what I WANT is this, but I have an 835 sf house and a non-profit-employee, quarantine budget.

 

I completely understand. Open fires aren't efficient or overly practical, they can make your house and your clothes smell, they can even be quite dangerous......... But there really isn't a substitute, period.

I write this as I'm sitting in front of this

The flooring needs finishing, the hearth needs rebuilding amongst all the other work the house still needs, but it's cold and wet and generally bleak outside.  I'm even having to use a camp chair because all my furniture is still in storage. But I'm prepared to overlook everything just so I can sit enjoy the sight, sound and smell of it. 

That is SO nice.

Here is a quick CAD of location B.  This is assuming only a 2" setback into the wall.

Now I gotta import this into my layout CAD to see how it might look in the room.

That was easier than I thought.  Forgive the mixture of the modern couch and the 1970s La-Z-boy, it's just what I could get in my glitchy Sketchup model library.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

is that eminem in your house?

The first one is Ryan Reynolds

The second one is Keyser Söze

Here's a LAZY suggestion, but maybe worth consideration. Between thanksgiving and christmas, we run our TV most of the day watching one of the many "yule log" shows. Basically they are hours of someone who just videotaped a fire in a fireplace. Very authentic noise and looks. Burn some incense for smell.

I know its not the same thing. and you can't cook a marshmellow. But you also can't pass out because you over-consumed eggnog and burn your house down. Also, the whole project will take you about 5 minutes to download one of the yule log programs and press play, and it will cost you $0.