A Warm, Toasty Evening

I hate our fireplace.

Stephen and I used to use our fireplace all the time and never had any problems...that was, until the day when our landlord told us that during the chimney inspection they had discovered that repairs were needed.  The repairs were scheduled and we were told that they would be as clean as possible.  With that being said, I did minimal preparations for their arrival - the extent of which being that I moved the couch away from the fireplace and pulled the rug back, thinking nothing of it.  When I returned home that night, our apartment was a sooty-mess and there was a hole in the wall above our fireplace.  Oh, and there was a nice little note from the "Chimney Authority" written on a napkin they had found in our kitchen that read:

In case you can't read that, it says, "We tried to be as clean as possible.  We are sorry and sorry for the hole on your wall! Thank you- Fireplace Chimney Authority'.

really?????

After a lot of anger, frustration and cleaning, fast forward to this past Tuesday night when the temperature in Chicago decided that it was not really ready for Spring and it wanted to revert back to its cold, winter days.  I should mention that Stephen and I enjoy free radiator heat (which is AWESOME) but with the freeness of it, we don't control when it's on and when it's off...Tuesday night, it happened to be off.  Continuing on...

My tootsies were cold, my nose was cold and quite frankly, I was just COLD.  That's when I had a bright idea, "Stephen, do you just want to have a fire?" (because remember, our chimney had been "fixed" by the Chimney Authority....)  

And that's what we did.  We enjoyed our little fire for about 20 minutes before I really realized that, even though the flue was open, the smoke from the fire wasn't properly leaving via the chimney, instead, it was taking a detour into our apartment.  

Insert lots of smoke.

Insert fire alarm.

Insert every window in our apartment being opened (wait, doesn't that defeat the original purpose of having a fire to begin with?)

Picture it: Stephen and I sitting on our couch with our winter coats on, wrapped in blankets.  

Smell it: A hickory, old-school Girl Scout campfire.

Needless to say, even though it's been almost a week, I'm still coming home and being instantly reminded of our fun, smoke-filled evening by that hickory, old-school Girl Scout campfire scent that I mentioned above.  Despite what the Chicago weather may bring (oh, like 33 degrees and snowy this morning), Stephen and I will not be enjoying a warm fire anytime soon.