Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: fireplaces

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 8 Mar 2012, at 10:10 PM, Carol Agate wrote:

> We are considering adding a fireplace to our common living room, but there is 
> concern about the risk of people being careless. Do you have a community 
> fireplace? What have you done to be sure people who use it aren't careless?

Unless the cohousing community is in an area where it is common for people to 
have wood-burning fireplaces at home and thus have good habits, I wouldn't 
advise it. It would require a lot of education. There are various safe-guards, 
I'm sure, but from 12 years of experience with people moving in and out, it's 
hard to keep everyone educated. It takes constant effort.

We have a gas fireplace, which I resisted because I thought we should have a 
wood-burning fireplace if we had one at all. Why have a fake one? But the fake 
ones are very nice and it is much loved. It recently needed a part that the 
repair person said was not available. We were faced with replacing the whole 
thing or removing it or just leaving it sit there. The only question anyone 
raised (at least out loud) was, "If we have to replace the whole thing, can me 
move it so it is better centered on the wall?" No discussion of removing it.

So I would say, put in a gas one. People will love probably love it.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org