I built a fireplace next to a house and setup the roasting spit across it but parallel to the backwall of my house.
When I try to use it though, my character walks through the handle and can't use it. It looks like he's trying to walk into the house.
Another thing I found was that I couldn't put the roasting spit on the fireplace in a different direction. Everytime, it kept setting up with the handle to the right instead of the left or perpendicular to the house.