Ditto! Wood! I agree there are many attractive stoves and inserts out there today. And they're EPA compliant so they're not "dirty". There are plenty of excellent manufacturers out there. Lopi, Regency, Jotul, Hearthstone, Avalon, etc. You can have the opening completely covered, or have an actual woodstove installed in the opening. That's what we did in our old home over 20 years ago. So when we built our current home here in VT, the FIRST thing we got was a woodstove! The fire viewing is excellent, and if you get the right size stove, it'll keep you warm without overheating you. Even though our home is new, (7 years old now) I don't regret making the woodstove the primary heat source. I have an oil furnace, but I use less than one tank of oil a year. And compare the price of gas today with the price of firewood. Wood wins every time! Go to your local stove shop. As a matter of fact, visit at least three. Get opinions of different stoves and inserts by various manufacturers. You won't regret it.

I've got to say that I hate our gas fireplace and would trade it for yours any day. Ours is just flicker of a yellow/blue series of flames that don't crackle or pop. I guess to each his or her own. That aside, if I was doing it again and wanted the heat advantage only, then I'd make sure to get one of the gas fired ones that have the blower and is somewhat sealed behind the glass. Otherwise, you still have the sucking of the cold air, but with none of the advantages of a real wood fireplace. I don't know the technicalities, but I'd shop around for several installers and see if you (they) can change the orientation and get at least 3 bids. Personally (although I'm not an expert) I don't see why you can't alter the flue/vent, but the cost would be more for sure. It's probably just up to the cost of redoing things and how much you are willing to pay. The stone veneer is a great idea and easy to do yourself. Also, consider stone tile. This post was edited by audiomixer on Thu, Feb 7, 13 at 23:20

Okay I'll post here then. Thanks for the kind words. Disclaimer - no engineer here, only gadgets are the TV and the Wii. We rent movies off of Amazon so no DVD player either. Haha! We use our fireplace all the time. We even use it in the spring when it's sunny but cold and the furnace isn't running as much. It's definitely not just decorative for us. We went back and forth on above the fireplace and beside it also. We finally just went with our initial plan which is what we have. It was hard to decide but I didn't really want the TV above. I also really wanted a hearth which brings the mantle up higher (there is a heat requirement so many inches above the firebox) and that would have made the TV pretty high. We have 9' ceilings. EDIT: Corrected ceiling height to 9'. The cabinets are 19 1/2" deep. The fireplace is 25". When we first moved in we didn't have it mounted yet and it was definitely hard (okay nearly impossible to see the whole screen) to see from the left side of the couch. Most mounts seem to only extend 18" and I knew from just placing the tv at that depth that it was going to be tough to get a full viewing angle at 18". I found this mount: 25" extension articulating mount on amazon and we love it. It pulls forward the 25" and it tilts. Very flexible and it made a huge difference. It now pulls forward about flush with the fireplace when we want it to. We normally keep it in that position but you can push it back to the wall and I don't think it protrudes too much at all. NOTE: For this kind of set up - a 1 arm mount would not work. They do not pull straight out from the wall and with the small clearance we had on either side of the TV we had to have it pull straight out. Mrs Pete I am sure your engineer hubby would be all over that anyhow but I thought I'd mention it. We have a single arm mount on our exercise room tv and I fiddled with that one and realized it wouldn't work for this application. But if you have more clearance you could be fine. I didn't want a huge TV in our living room so I worked around the size he had purchased which I think is a 40"? Something like that. The arches were actually simple to do. We checked out how to do them with drywall but found the ones below and it was so easy. We took measurements and ordered them on line from Archways. They were made to fit and installed by dh in a jiffy. They were reasonably priced too. I think about $30 bucks a piece? Don't quote me though it was too long ago now but I think under $50 for sure? I don't like a lot of nicknacks so I didn't want a lot of shelving for more 'stuff'. The one cabinet on either side suits me fine and it was easier on the budget. I bought cabinets from where we purchased our kitchen cabinets from and DH made a top for it, we painted it to match the trim (which was matched to the cabinets). Built ins can get so pricey. I hope that helps.

Why are you putting in a gas insert? why not just leave what you have and do a gas log? the bricks in the arch are supporting bricks for the rest of the structure instead of screwing w/the bricks, remove the whole thing and do your insert, surround it w/something diff modifying the arch and sticking in something different isn't the best option. (is a fisheye lens all you have??)