The unattractive top and bottom grilles allow for the circulation of air through the hollow metal fire box surround. At one time there were factory built wood fireplaces with remote ducted intakes and outlets but I haven't seen them in recent years. Here is a link that might be useful: link

D K and Sons / All: This stuff still hasn't fully hardened. It's clay-like still. I bought it from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hercules-1-2-gal-Furnace-Stove-Cement-35515/202078154 Directions of use: "Surface to be joined or repaired should be clean and free of any old cement or debris. Clean surface and remove paint, grease, or oil before applying furnace cement. Wash cleaned area with water. Do not apply to very hot surfaces; wait until surfaces cool down. Apply thin layer of cement covering all openings. Press tightly into section or part being repaired or sealed. Apply liberal second layer of cement and smooth with trowel. If adding adjoining sections, place gently and avoid any twisting motions. Remove excess cement and smooth edges. Start heat using low temperatures for initial firing. Gradually increase the temperature allowing the cement to cure to a solid and durable mass, free from pores. Full firing may follow. Always keep container tightly covered when not in use." They talk about a "firing" and using heat. It's unclear exactly what I should do though. Doesn't say anything about how long it would take to dry. I'm confused. Thoughts? Thanks.

To get the best answers for your area, find and talk to someone who specilizes in installing fireplaces. Here around Madison WI I used a place called United Brick & Fireplace, but there are 4-5 others, this is just the one my builder recommended. DH wanted the old fashion heat sucking open fireplace that would be pretty and sound and smell like a wood fire. I wanted something that would heat the house offer the ambience of a fireplace, but not the heat sucking effect. Like a free-standing wood stove. We discovered you can get a hi-eff wood stove that is set into a masonary fireplace! The door will open on the front when hubby wants the crackle & smell, it won't suck heat out of the house, and it will offer the firelight and heat. Bonus! some of them you can even order a cooking arm and pot to cook over the fire. Anyhow we went with this one. Montecito Fireplace but the place installing ours had several options available.

We've two wood burning fireplaces in our current house. The Family Room gets used about 30-40 times per year, living room about 5. Wood-burning fireplaces were a must for our new house. We really enjoy them. Health. The issues @Springtime raised are real issues. Relative to other risks to our health are quite low though. You are likely to loose massively more years of your life to being overweight, obese, having a sedate lifestyle, or being on or near a U.S. road than to any issues with a wood burning fireplace used EVERY DAY. That said, reducing the risks with good fireplace design and ventilation are still a good idea. For instance, outside vents directly in to the fire box provide only about 200 cfm so we run our MUA @ 400 CFM when burning a fire and for at least a couple of hours after it's gone out. This insures that combustion by-products mostly go up the chimney. I also open the flue and run the MUA when cleaning ash out. Energy. Wood-burning fireplaces are not energy efficient. But, perspective. An hour of fire with an outside ambient temp of +20°f uses the same energy as driving an SUV about 1.2 miles IIRC (need to double check that number though). We ride bicycles for nearly all of our local transportation and our cars are electric (and charged by solar) so all in all the wasted energy of all of our fires for a year is a rounding error compared to how much less energy we use for transportation than an average couple or family. Whether health or energy efficiency, every little bit helps. But we shouldn't spend a lot of time and energy swatting flies when an elephant is getting ready to crush us.