When my siblings and I were growing up, we spent a lot of time with our Grandparents, and our mom and dad worked full-time tasks and we spent a good amount of time with my Grandparents.
They had a actually nice fireplace in the residing room with a brick and concrete mantle… My siblings and I regularly sat in the residing room and Gram would read us a story, I loved the sound of the crackling fire and the fireplace provided an ample amount of heat.
Once I started to get older, I started to dream about my first house. I really knew that I wanted a fireplace. The first time I bought a house, I made it my main goal. In all honesty, I didn’t think about any homes at all unless they had a fireplace in the main residing area. I ended up stuck in a home that was less than ideal, just because it had a fireplace like my Grandparents house, then when my spouse and I got married, we purchased a much larger house. I still wanted a fireplace, but this time we saw those for an electric device in the master dining room, and every one of us purchased an electric fireplace that sits nicely in the corner of the room. It has a shelf for old memorabilia and blends in nicely with the rest of the room decor. It looks like it was built into the wall. The electric fireplace still gives off plenty of heat, but it requires a lot less work than your average fireplace. In this tied up world, I will settle for function and versatility over tradition.