I do have a "fake" fireplace, gas. Nice thing about it, flip a switch to turn it on and off! Plus no log pile, no spliting wood, and no clean up!Ah, but you're missing the point. Ben Franklin once said that a man who splits his own firewood is twice warmed. Splitting and stacking your own firewood is almost Zen-like. In the 8 plus years I've had a fireplace, I've never paid a penny for firewood. I'm a scavenger.
Wood fires touch something primal in all of us. We call it "caveman TV."
I grew up in NY and lived there until just shy of my 22nd birthday. I did plenty of cutting and stacking in that time. I do miss a real fire. But to have a real fire here in the eastern part of NC is just not practical