Fireplace design final!

At long last, we have determined what do to with the electric fireplace in our great room. 

We chose electric over gas and wood for energy-efficiency, flexibility to choose heat or simple ambiance (we do have a young child around), and cleanliness. The insert we chose is the Classic Flame 36" 36EB111-GRC.

Classic Flame 36" 36EB111-GRC.

Back in June, we walked through a model home that has a great room very similar to ours, with the four big windows. We liked the niche, but were unable to do that with the ICF wall.

We're still waiting for a sketch from our trim guy, but we're looking at a prairie-style picture frame trim above the fireplace, something like this, except taller to accommodate our 14' ceiling.

The surround will look very close to this, which was done by our trim carpenter in another house:

Our hearth and mantle will look like this.

It sure feels good to have that decision made. Especially our fireplace has looked like this for the last two months!