Hearthstone Question

I come to the Experts with a question about my hearth. I just bought a house with this hearth in the master bedroom. It has been cleaned by a chimney cleaner and I started a fire in and had about 20 minutes of white smoke. I used fat sticks from Plow & Earth and newspaper to start it.
Any suggestions on getting a better fire started?

I also have an insert in my main chimney. The cleaner told me it didn'y have a flue insert so it would be difficult to clean properly.How hard is it to find a flue insert and how much do they cost? Thanks-

Josh.

So the smoke filled the room? At what point of the fire did it begin entering the room? I know this is a basic question, but was your damper open?

Also, you're saying you have two different fireplaces in your house? Are they connected to separate chimneys?

Lastly, perhaps you should rename your thread; with that title, it appears that you want information on a type of stove (Hearthstone brand) and not on a chimney problem.

For the chimney problem side of it, a lot of chimneys need to be 'primed' a bit before they draw. Once you build (but before lighting) the fire, take a couple sheets of newspaper and crumple them up into kind of a torch, light it, and hold it up in the damper area. Starts a little warm air rising.

Also, don;t go too heavy on those fatwood sticks. The light great, but smoke like crazy. 3 or 4 should be plenty to get it going. Then lay in some small sticks (finger size), and a few small splits (maybe an inch or two across). Opinions vary, but I'va always found the log cabin approach works well in fireplaces (each course of wood in alternating directions).

And, as was mentioned, make sure the damper is open.

Steve