To answer "why?" Every room in my house has a capped off gas outlet. There was a brief period early
in the last century when open-flame gas heaters were the norm. Gas was practically free at the time, so the more the merrier. Even the bathroom has one.
All those heaters are gone, for safety reasons, including the living room mock fireplace which is also gone. All around the neighborhood, people have adapted the fake fireplaces as TV receptacles, terrariums, or actual conversions to real fireplaces.
In our case, the fake fireplace was removed by an amateur long ago, leaving an outline on the wall and a terrible non-hardwood floor patch where the "hearth" used to be. I've spent 19 years looking for a contractor to put in an actual fireplace, but they've all been busy with bigger remodels and new construction. Sigh. Even in hard times, the small contractors have diappeared, and the big guys still can't be bothered.
All that's left is a floor furnace which was only ever intended as backup. Our little house is a museum of bad energy ideas. (But the tile is beautiful).
So, all you folks with frostbite in the Midwest, please remember to feel sorry for us too, LOL! Never mind, the fact is that on the west coast there is at least a 20-degree difference between the highs and lows. So, it was 45-degrees this morning, and I almost had to button my shirt sleeves to endure lunch on the deck at 65 in the sun, lol.
