As you know, it seems we are endlessly redoing something in our house. We have redone the fireplace this fall. (yes, it took several months to get it done, we have limited chunks of time and knew this one would take several.)
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| Here are two pictures I found of what it used to look like. The previous owners had painted the brick, but that only made it uglier. We sledged hammered off the arch, it came down pretty easily. The mantel too. |
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| After we took down the arch and mantel, Jordon and I cut out the drywall and any 2x4s in the wall. No they were not load bearing, so it was okay. Next I built the shelves and Jordon helped me paint them. We fit them into the wall and screwed them in place. We cut out plywood for the stone and I layed it on the table to make sure the stone fit before we stuck it on. First, we screwed on backer board for the mortar to stick too. (Am I getting to technical here, stay with me.) |
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| I numbered all the stones and made a diagram to show where they would all go. We used stack stone, so there was no grout. |
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| Sterling and Brendon did the sides the afternoon I went to the Nutcracker with my mom and Kevra. |
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| Sterling and I finished up the center the following Saturday. |
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| Jordon went with me to get a board for the mantel. After I painted it, we put it into place, just 2 weeks ago. |
We still are not completely done. I need to put tile just in the opening to cover the cement backer board. We also plan to fill in under the hearth with stone, but they will almost all need to be cut with the grinder, so it will be a little time consuming. We have also ordered a new screen to cover the opening and make it safer. It is amazing to me how things always seem to take a lot longer then you think they will, so always plan on extra time. Sometimes it is scary tackling something you have never done before, but you just have to put your head down and plow ahead. I can say that now, but know that a lot of pondering went into this project as well as adjustments along the way to make it work. I love the result, definitely an improvement over the old one.
2 comments:
It looks beautiful! Can't wait to se the completed project!
Wow. You can do all that stuff?? I wish I had that confidence and go-getter-ship-dom. I like how you anticipate and answer all of our questions. "No, it wasn't a load bearing wall"
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