Fireplace - FAIL

One of our favorite features going into the house is the two sided fireplace. Our builder thought we could save some money by having a masonry fireplace built that had gas burners built into it. Since we would only be burning gas, he thought we could just get the HVAC company to run a duct to exhaust the fireplace. Without burning wood, there wasn't a need for traditional chimney.

Here's the fireplace after construction:

FAIL

$2500 later, the HVAC company says "no way." The inspector (there for another reason) says "no way that gets passed unless someone signs off on that it will perform." Our builder found a fireplace company that could make it work, but it was going to cost about $5k.

Luckily, the builder realized he couldn't stick us with this mistake. Now we have safe fireplace: