Happy Birthday to Me?

The week before my birthday, The Agent asked me what I wanted for a present.

"A gas fireplace," I answered. "One that comes on when I just flip a switch. And a nice mantle."

Ignore the cutie and observe the fireplace... note that it's nothing special. 

So, on the day before my birthday, The Agent started working on my new fireplace. It now looks like this: 

Oh, wait, did I forget to mention? This was my LAST birthday, which was in NOVEMBER. That means my fireplace has looked like this for over A YEAR, 

It turns out the designers of this house did not pipe gas to the insert. It will apparently cost quite a bit of money to get the gas line from where it currently is (the stove in the kitchen) to the fireplace. We had to rethink this plan. 

Other options include: 

• Turn the fireplace back to the way it was-- a wood burning fireplace. 
• Wall up the entire thing-- no fireplace at all
• Put in an electric fireplace. 

I really didn't like any of the options, but I REALLY haven't liked looking at a hole in my living room for the last year. 

This has been a serious point of tension between The Agent and I. He keeps telling me that this is what I asked for. Ummm, no. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have left the fireplace the way it was and just asked for a sweater. 

After much nagging, The Agent has designed what I am hoping will be a viable solution.

Oh, look at that. I'm on tv.

That's an electric fireplace, which I didn't really want, but it's better than having a hole in my house. we ordered the fireplace, and it arrived, and it actually looks a lot better than I thought it would.

But I still have a hole in my living room. It's not installed yet.

This is all work that The Agent can do himself... He just needs to get off the couch and do it.

I will probably do another follow up in a year... hopefully it will be done by then!