Fireplace

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Luxury appointments abound in the 7,000-square-foot, 12-year-old Victorian-style mansion overlooking Great Bay, such as a marble fireplace that once graced a Biddle estate mansion, a crystal chandelier that at the touch of a button lowers from the 30-foot foyer ceiling for cleaning, and boat slips big enough to berth a pair of yachts. A "smart house" system controls window treatments, lighting, heating, air-conditioning, and music. Slate-covered turrets, little secret gardens, and gingerbread-laden porches make the exterior look more like Cape May than Ocean City.

Considering it was only a two-day getaway, we sure got our 48 hours' worth: The setting was informal and friendly and cozy, the food nonpareil - and the fire was hypnotic. As a Christmas gift for my pregnant wife, Valerie, I had offered her a quiet winter weekend away from the children - our first trip without them in four years. What I had in mind was a bed-and-breakfast or small inn with its own restaurant, serving full country breakfasts and gourmet dinners. Someplace with a cozy pub where we could get something to drink and chat with other guests or maybe the owners.

Question : We bought a house last year that had a beautiful vented gas fireplace. However, we were told it was in need of a new chimney flue. Because replacing the flue was so expensive, we were told by chimney people that we could seal off the chimney and change to a ventless gas-log set. When I went to a gas fireplace store, they told us that it was unsafe to put ventless logs in a fireplace with the flue sealed off and that we would have to open the window slightly when using the ventless logs.

Question: I want to get a wood-burning fireplace, the kind with the soapstone that will radiate heat. I know there are simpler and cheaper installation and maintenance choices. But I love that smell, as well as the sight, of a wood fire, and with the radiant heat of the soapstone, I would think that would be an attractive adjunct to the price of heating. My house is 125 years old and in Fishtown. One estimate I received was for $10,000, even though there is a chimney with three flues, one of which is the exhaust for the heater.

The man who cleaned our chimney said we needed to tend to some loose mortar joints before using the fireplace this winter. What exactly is involved in repairing the joints? Do a thorough inspection of the fireplace to make sure you find all of the loose joints. If you're going to do the repair work, you might as well do all of it at once. Loose joints can be extremely dangerous and should be repaired before you light a fire. To begin, you will need to remove the loose mortar.

Question: We had a fireplace built in our living room in 1976. It is a grayish brick, but the bricks are not flat; they're bumpy to look more like stone. We have not used the fireplace in many years. Now the bricks at the bottom of the fireplace are starting to disintegrate. The outside surface is crumbling into a white powder, and the inside seems to be made of this white powder also. What is causing this, and what can we do to prevent it happening to all the bricks? Answer : It's likely moisture is causing the bricks to crumble.

The advent of central heating in the late 19th century was supposed to have made fireplaces obsolete. Then why does everyone - new-house owner and old-house owner alike - seem to want a fireplace? "In California, you cannot sell a house without a fireplace, even though you probably don't need one more than three days a year," said Gopal Ahluwahlia, director of research for the National Association of Home Builders. Just as is the case with almost every other amenity in the 21st-century American house, the demand for fireplaces centers on something called "lifestyle.

Question: I have a gas fireplace that, when turned on, has an odor of gas (or an odor that I think gas would smell like). What is it and what can I do to get rid of that horrible smell? I've had the fireplace for four years. Answer: Proper maintenance is an issue with just about everything, and if your fireplace has begun giving off a horrible smell when it is turned on after four years of use, I would suggest contacting the manufacturer or the installer directly and immediately for advice for your make or model, and not using the fireplace again until you have an answer.

It's still cold. And sometimes a little damp. And even if we haven't gotten those multi-feet snowstorms this year, the cold is still hanging on. Who wouldn't want to curl up next to a warm, roaring fire? If you don't have a fireplace of your own - or just don't want to deal with chopping and dragging wood - take a break at one of the region's many bars, restaurants and coffee spots where the best view is of the hearth. Three Beans Coffee Co. 140 N. Haddon Ave., Haddonfield, 856-354-4751 This coffeehouse is like a home away from home.

What happens when two architects marry and buy a home? "They change it!" say Claudia Cueto and Tim Kearney. These marriage and professional partners knew the Swarthmore home they purchased back in 1996 was not their dream house. But while others might have walked away, Cueto and Kearney decided that the home's location, in a neighborhood of tidy stone and brick houses on a quiet street, was motivation enough. They would dig in and transform the home into the one they wanted.

Casey Ichniowski and Anne Preston are the latest owners of a 90-year-old center-hall Colonial in Bala Cynwyd that has changed with the times every 30 years or so. The couple bought the five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house about 12 years ago, moving from Long Island, N.Y., when Preston became a professor of economics at Haverford College. "We thought the house could accommodate us, our three children, and all our family and guests," says Ichniowski, who teaches management at Columbia University in New York.

Question: What is the most efficient way to run a refrigerator in an unheated garage? My father unplugs his refrigerator and leaves the door open. Unfortunately, at that point all the liquids tend to freeze. Answer: A garage does present some special issues for refrigerators. To avoid the premature compressor failure that can result from oil thickened by colder temperatures (and cause untimely fridge death), the air surrounding a refrigerator must be 55 degrees or higher.

Question: We had a fireplace built in our living room in 1976. It is a grayish brick, but the bricks are not flat; they're bumpy to look more like stone. We have not used the fireplace in many years. Now the bricks at the bottom of the fireplace are starting to disintegrate. The outside surface is crumbling into a white powder, and the inside seems to be made of this white powder also. What is causing this, and what can we do to prevent it happening to all the bricks? Answer : It's likely moisture is causing the bricks to crumble.

Question : We have three gas fireplaces (two chimneys), about eight years old and all currently serviced and in formerly wood-burning fireplaces. The house was built about nine years ago. I've gotten conflicting advice about the flue. Some, including the fireplace serviceman, say to keep the flue open all the time; others say to open it only during active use. I've been keeping it open, but lots of cold air comes in during the winter. There's a pilot light that stays on and a wall switch to start the fire.

Question : We bought a house last year that had a beautiful vented gas fireplace. However, we were told it was in need of a new chimney flue. Because replacing the flue was so expensive, we were told by chimney people that we could seal off the chimney and change to a ventless gas-log set. When I went to a gas fireplace store, they told us that it was unsafe to put ventless logs in a fireplace with the flue sealed off and that we would have to open the window slightly when using the ventless logs.

A couple of weeks back, I responded to a question about dampness near a first-floor fireplace that our reader thought might be related to a recurring leak in the ceiling of the room above. Readers have this advice to offer: From Joe Ponessa, professor emeritus at Rutgers University and building-science consultant: If the chimney also contains the flue for a furnace or boiler, the other possible source of the water is a blockage in the flue. Squirrel nests are one likely cause of blockages.

Question: I have a gas fireplace that, when turned on, has an odor of gas (or an odor that I think gas would smell like). What is it and what can I do to get rid of that horrible smell? I've had the fireplace for four years. Answer: Proper maintenance is an issue with just about everything, and if your fireplace has begun giving off a horrible smell when it is turned on after four years of use, I would suggest contacting the manufacturer or the installer directly and immediately for advice for your make or model, and not using the fireplace again until you have an answer.

Nothing puts the cozy in cold-weather dining quite like the crackle of a fireplace. But for a region with as much history as Philadelphia, the old-time hearth has become a surprising rarity in local restaurants. And fireside ambience, it turns out, is hardly a guarantee of good cooking - as I discovered at a couple of dud meals during my recent quest. Thankfully, I found more than a handful of admirable exceptions to the trend worth sharing here, from a classic Bucks County brunch perch over the Delaware River to a stylish Center City corner boîte where familiar comforts get a cutting-edge makeover.

For Maryellen Nerz, the word home has a meaning other people cannot readily appreciate. She is not like other homeowners, those of us who walk into our houses and see the need for new floors, new paint, or new cabinets. When Nerz walks into her Queen Anne Victorian in Strafford, Chester County, she sees, and feels, only calm. "This house has helped me," said Nerz, who is in her eighth year of battling breast cancer, having made it past the five-year survival benchmark.