Poor Santa.
So many gifts. So many deliveries.
And so very few chimneys to slide down.
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Mr. Claus is probably still out there, making his rounds, maybe even resorting to delivery by way of balconies or, heaven forbid, knocking on doors just like the UPS man.
Akin to in-unit washers and dryers, fireplaces have escalated to the top of many a new-home buyer’s priority list–right up there with two- and three-car garages.
“It’s rare for a buyer to forgo a fireplace,” says Hugh Smeed, vice president of sales and marketing for Crown Community Development of Aurora, which develops master-planned communities, such as Thornwood in South Elgin.
But it’s even more rare for those fireplaces to have functional chimneys because the majority of buyers are choosing gas fireplaces rather than romantic, old-fashioned ones that burn real wood logs and have chimneys so that smoke and soot can exit and Santa can enter.
In Chicago and most suburbs, building codes or ordinances often restrict types of fireplaces in specific types of residences. But even when there are no potential code violations, the gas types are by far the favorites.
They’re more efficient, according to builders and manufacturers of hearth products: They offer consistent heat, are cost-effective, clean-burning and electricity-free (especially noted during these days of ComEd outages and Y2K jitters).
Perhaps most important to some (probably the very same people who prefer fake Christmas trees and artificial flowers): They’re mess-free–no clean up, no log storage.
Smeed claims that gas fireplaces have become “so realistic that sometimes people sit in front of them for several minutes before realizing that the logs aren’t actually burning.”
Try telling that to the folks who love the real thing. “Some people like to hear the crackling, love the smell of the wood burning,” says Gail Forlani of Palatine-based Insignia Homes. “If those people can afford it–generally homes at $350,000 and up–they definitely want wood-burning fireplaces.”
The mesmerizing effects of watching the fire blaze–then soften and simmer, or sizzle and crackle with flying sparks when the logs are prodded–are also what prompts some people to put down the extra $8,000 to $20,000 for a wood-burning hearth with chimney and all the design accoutrements that might include floor-to-ceiling stone facing or elaborate mantels.
Some 75 to 80 percent of Insignia’s home buyers choose a fireplace as an option, says Folnari, well worth noting considering that a direct-vent gas fireplace can add an extra $3,000 on up, she says, “and you could get a Corian-type counter for that much.”
About 20 to 25 percent of Insignia’s total fireplace buyers choose wood-burning fireplaces for the main first-floor living area, says Forlani, adding that more of these buyers are also opting for a second fireplace–gas burning–in the master suite.
Jeanne Martini, sales manager at Edward R. James Homes of Glenview, finds somewhat similar choices. A fireplace is standard in all James’ single-family homes with preferences for wood and gas nearly equal. She, too, says that when there’s a second fireplace in a home, it’s usually in the master bedroom. A fireplace is an option in James condos and town homes and almost 70 percent add a fireplace, for resale value if not their own pleasure.
“Psychologically, the fireplace is the heart of the home,” claims Nick Custer, an interior architect with Chicago-based MCL Companies, a major developer of residential and mixed-use communities.
One fireplace is standard with each MCL condo and town home and Custer says it’s not at all rare for buyers of town home and single-family residences to add not just one but two additional fireplaces. In its single-family homes, at Old Town Square for example, some buyers are opting for wood-burning fireplaces.
“Only two in 100 buyers of MCL properties choose not to get fireplaces,” according to Custer.
Throughout the building industry in the greater Chicago area, spokespersons can rattle off numbers: City residential builder Smithfield Properties LLC has seen 47 of the last 48 buyers opting for a fireplace.
Approximately 75 to 80 percent of the single-family homeowners at Kendall Ridge in Joliet add fireplaces, says Susan Lanucha, sales manager of the Smykal Associates community. That certainly destroys any myth that fireplaces are only upscale, since the entry-level neighborhood has duplex homes base-priced from $120,000 and single-family homes up to the $180,000s.
What’s the attraction? What’s behind this surge in the popularity of fireplaces, not only in family rooms, living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, but outdoors as well, where some families are installing gas or wood-burning fireplaces on their patios or in “outdoor kitchens”?
Bonnie Smith, an interior home designer who incorporates fireplace settings in home builders’ models, says it’s the relaxation factor. “There’s a coziness you don’t get from other amenities,” says Smith. There are people who want to watch football and “there are those who want to enjoy great conversations or just each other’s company.” For them, it’s the fireplace.
Nicholas Helmer, chief operating officer of Inland Great Lakes (IGL) of Oak Brook and a builder who likes to put things like the current “fireplace phenomenon” into perspective, remembers when fireplaces became passe “in the ’50s and ’60s and were ripped out and replaced with drywall.”
He says “the avant garde of the ’60s and ’70s wanted a cleaner, rather than a vintage, look.” But in the ’80s the “loft phenom, with the high ceilings and the lord of the manor space called for fireplaces, only you couldn’t put real fireplaces into those buildings.
So, manufacturers and developers came up with the solution of making the fireplace an appliance, like a stove is an appliance. Eventually, what evolved were the ventless and direct vent fireplaces–those that don’t need a chimney venting to the roof–the passing of ordinances that allowed such contraptions in lofts as well as other types of housing.
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“And the fireplace market made a comeback,” Helmer says.
Then Helmer adds a final psychological aspect to the whole saga of modern-day fireplaces: “More than half of the 87 IGL homes with fireplaces that were sold during 1999 were sold during the off-peak winter season.”
So, maybe there is a Santa Claus factor?
Well, that might be a stretch. “When people come in from the cold and there’s a bright fire going in a model fireplace, they’re far more prone to buy.”
Easy to understand: On a blustery day, a fireplace glowing with warmth is a lot more cozy and comforting than a Corian counter.