On an extremely cold Pittsburgh night nothing is more enjoyable than sitting by a nice warm fire. Which is exactly why when we started looking for a new home, we knew we simply had to have a fireplace.

Thankfully, the majority of older homes have at least one so we assumed we wouldn't have a very hard time checking that box on our wish list....

As luck would have it, our old broad has four beautiful fireplaces. The not so lucky part of this story is that once we started opening up the fireplaces (all four of them had been bricked over) we discovered that three of the four had been coal burning.

Coal burning fireplaces, also commonly known as Rumford fireplaces, are frequently found in homes built in the mid 1800's - early 1900's. Coal burns longer and is cleaner than wood, making it a more desired option for homeowners of this era.

Fireplaces designed to burn coal are extremely shallow, making the modern gas insert options available on the market today far too large.

Alas, enter in the gem that is The Victorian Fireplace Shop, a fabulous little company in Richmond, VA.  The Victorian Fireplace Shop has several gorgeous gas coal basket options, perfect for providing that authentic look.

Check out some of the gorgeous options on their website:

hhttp://www.gascoals.com/Home/GASFires/GasCoalBaskets.aspxouse 

We decided to start with our living room fireplace as it is the largest in the home, meaning we were able to find a regular 'ol gas log insert.

We purchased our insert online, as Lowe's and Home Depot didn't have anything small enough. Andrew  first opened up the fireplace, with a bit of traditional elbow grease and a sledge hammer; and then we had our plumber come out and run the gas line.

Word of caution:

To all of you "DIY ers"
I'm going to say this once and only once:  DO NOT mess with gas!!!

Honestly, it really isn't safe. Andrew had briefly toyed around with the idea of running the gas line himself but thankfully he listened to my pleas and brought in a professional. Usually having a line installed will run you about $200.00, but it is really worth the money to avoid any dangerous scenarios.

I don't know about you, but I'm not looking to have my husband go up in flames....
If you are, don't bring in the professional and let him go to town.....

Once the plumber installed the gas line, our fireplace was pretty much ready to cast a warm and friendly glow on the Dylewski farm house.

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Quick Tip!
If you're in the market for a gas log insert you will need to decide if you will be going with a vented or vent less log. Our old chimney is all sealed up, so we needed to go with a "vent less" log.

To read more about the difference between the two, check out this link:

http://www.hansenwholesale.com/gas-logs/vented-vs-ventfree.asp

We knew we wanted something that looked as realistic as possible, so we bought a log with these little stones that look like embers.We purchased our gas log via Woodland Direct. They have several excellent options, at various price points.

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Fireplace-Accessories/Ventless-Gas-Logs

Below is a picture of the finished product!

Happy Friday!
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Sarah