My Fireplace

It seems like part of the trick of convincing ourselves to deal with the annoying aspects of old things and old places is to call them "charming." When we listed our really old rental in Cambridge, MA on Craigslist to sublet it out for the summer, we made sure to mention all the charm, and left out some of the other details, like "small doorways" or "low ceilings" or "musty basement."

Truly though, our ancient fireplace is very charming. Old dental trim, intricate cut-out details on the screen...

It is a working fireplace, but we are nervous about using it with the girls. And although you can't tell from these pictures, it's pretty clean right now. No black soot anywhere (which is also preferable with little ones that tend to crawl inside when mommy's not looking).

I feel like it's sort of a shame that we don't use it. What do you think about stacking pretty wood inside like this to showcase it a little more (and prevent toys from going inside)?

(wish I knew where I got this image from...)