Planning the move from the Midwest to the Northeast seven years ago, we made a list of what we really wanted in a house: to be close to work, to have enough bedrooms, and to have wood-burning fireplace.  Then, we found a barn and bought the house that came with it. Since then, we’ve been working out how to get that fireplace.  Bill nor I relished the idea of moving again.  We bought at the top of the market in 2005; we like our neighbors a lot; and we like our location.  Plus, we need our barn.

Three years ago we sat with an architect and drew up fireplace plans.  Then pushed them to the back burner.  Last spring we started again and came up with Fireplace Plan II.  Then we looked for a builder last fall.  Finally, two weeks ago we started work on the fireplace.

And the first step in adding a fireplace to the house?

Why, plant a 30-foot dumpster under the window of the barn loft and start chucking things out of the loft over the rail, of course!

It can only get more interesting from here as we work toward celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary roasting s’mores over a fire in our new fireplace come October.