About

By the first real snow, half the valley is thinking about a better fire. The showroom at Estes Flame Works on Highway 66, out toward the Beaver Meadows entrance at the same address as Ferrellgas, is where to look at the options in person.

Brad Klein started the business about 20 years ago, and much of the work goes into custom homes. Mendota is the featured line. Indoors that means gas, wood and electric fireplaces, gas and wood inserts, stoves and gas logs. Outdoors it's fireplaces, fire pits and fire kegs, and the shop also does custom doors and the pieces that go around a fireplace.

The order of operations is worth knowing. A visit to the house comes first, then the showroom, and the decisions that matter get made early: wood or gas, where it goes, how big the room is, how it vents. If you're building, have that conversation before the walls close up. Owners of an old open masonry fireplace can ask whether an insert will work.

Call (970) 586-9584