Millions of people all over the continent rely on wood and gas fireplaces to heat their homes. It’s important to know basic fireplace safety guidelines to ensure protection of your home and family.
According to the USFA, back in 2007 as many as 36% of all residential house fires were caused by heating units - primarily fireplaces. How many of those could have been prevented through fireplace safety? Practices such as regular fireplace maintenance as well as safe ignition and burning of fires are certain to see a decrease in that …

While the atmosphere and aroma are second to none, a traditional wood burning fireplace can be much more energy efficient once a fireplace insert is installed.
Fireplace inserts fit into your existing fireplace, either mounted flush with the hearth or at times extending out slightly. Inserts often include upgraded stone or tile finishes, cast iron features and glass doors. They are extremely attractive and complete the look of even the more barren of fireplaces.
Besides the aesthetics, fireplace inserts add energy efficiency to your heating system, whether it’s wood, pellet burning or …

The stored energy in wood has been used for centuries to heat homes and cook foods. Wood burning heat was the purpose of the huge fireplaces seen in historical homes and estates where fireplaces taller and wider than a man spewed heat (and often sparks) into rooms. Large kettles for cooking and heating water hung on hooks that could be rotated near the fire or directly over the flames.
Burning wood for heat was not limited to fireplaces in homes and businesses. Indian teepees featured heat generated by a fire in …

To build a safe, efficient and down right beautiful fire every time, homeowners need to learn how to start a fire in a wood stove. These short, simple steps will provide the optimum heat, efficiency and comfort for your home.
Start with dry hardwood for fuel. You should buy firewood that has had a chance to dry for nine months before burning, as wet, soft wood makes for a smoky, inefficient fire. Also, green wood causes plenty of sparks and burns cooler than seasoned wood. Make sure to dry all firewood …

Adding a gas fireplace when remodeling a kitchen or bath has become popular with homeowners in colder climates. The price of natural gas, propane and electricity that are routinely used as fuel for heating homes has skyrocketed in recent years.
Adding a fireplace to a kitchen may initially appear to provide only a design element for a country home or farmhouse effect. In reality, this can be a common sense addition to your home. For busy families with two wage earners, time spent at home on weekdays is limited. Mornings are …

We live in the age of health and safety paranoia - a time when children can’t go to school for fear of falling over and when football games are called off at the first sign of snow. It can lead some people to despair, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore all health and safety precautions, especially when it comes to our own homes. Although we don’t think about it, we can put ourselves in the line of all sorts of danger if we don’t pay enough attention to the …

There are hundreds if not thousands of shower curtain ideas that you can decide to use in your bathroom. Basically, no matter what kind of decorating scheme you want, you can find at least a few that will match perfectly.
One of the first things you need to do is to figure out what you want to do with your bathroom. If you want to open it up and get a lot of light into the room, you should probably opt for a light coloured shower curtain. This will keep the …

We all get tired of the old look of our house. Of course, we sometimes want to change its appearance and one way of doing this is to start replacing the windows. When we replace the windows, we definitely need to measure them accurately. Otherwise, we might not be able to buy the right ones and just be disappointed in the end.
There are steps that we need to follow on how to measure for replacement windows. First, we need to know if the replaced window will be installed in the …

Outhouses are considered as things of the past and is rapidly vanishing. Having AN outhouse means having a link to the way life was lived in the past. But despite this, outhouses are still being built in American and around the world.
Being useful and very practical, outhouses are built in various designs and shapes. When deciding to build one, it shouldn’t take much of your time. Perhaps one to three days should be fine. Any longer and it could be that there is a flaw in the design or …

Vinyl tiles are nice things you can use to decorate your floor. It is also affordable. Installing vinyl for the floor can be done on your own as long as you study the steps carefully. Vinyl is best for houses when you have plans of remodeling your house after a few years. There are two kinds of vinyl tiles for the floor. The first kind is the one where you have to put adhesive so it would stick on the floor. The other one requires you to utilize staples on …