Getting There

It felt like we had a long streak only to be broken by some more renovations. It started out as finishing the basement bathroom and then it turned into replacing the fireplace our living room and everything around it. Apparently, we are back at it, in full swing! 

We had picked out a fireplace a while ago, but we weren't sure if we would go with the black surround or the stainless. I thought the black surround would be a little too much black, and was cheering for the stainless surround, while Adam was all for the black surround. 

Pacific Energy Neo 1.6 Fireplace Insert

After a quick 3 hour road trip to the closest store that had a display model of the fireplace, I got on board with Adam and thought that the black surround was pretty sweet. The surround had a lot more depth in real life, and we've had issues with stainless steel before... As in our dog, Bocephus would lick it endlessly. We actually went with brand new white appliances, as to avoid tongue prints. I digress.... But really, can you imagine poor Bo trying to lick the surround? 

Black it is! 

Instead of the stainless surround, I could deal with the fireplace accessories being stainless.

Much more lickable. 

CHIMO Round Log Basket by Blomus
from: Lumens.com

CHIMO Fireplace Set 4 Pcs. by Blomus
from: Lumens.com

---

So with that decided and ordered, we had to replace the sexy black tile that wasn't great but wasn't bad enough to piss me off every time I looked at it. Too bad we had to extend our hearth to comply with current building standards, and were forced to delete the black tiles. So this is what we had, and what it will become. 

Before.

{Soon to be} After.

Here are the guys, hard at work building out the hearth and getting ready to tile it. They added two- 2x4s on the front to get to the proper size hearth, and one- 2x4 on the side so the rock we will be putting on won't protrude over the hearth, That would just look odd. 

Since it was a concrete floating hearth, it was pretty simple- just drill into the concrete and screw on the 2x4s and concrete board. 

Then again, I didn't do it, so there was probably a lot more that went into that. I'll just leave all that up to the professionals. I know there were issues cutting the concrete board, as it heated up the saw so much, and cutting tiles just seems like something to leave to someone who knows what they are doing. Maybe one day I will attempt a tile DIY project. 
But it will be on something that can be easily redone if it needs it! 

Because the rock should go on after the fireplace is installed, here is the almost finished job. The finished tile work looks amazing! At the moment the tile definitely clashes in colour to the painted brick, but once the fireplace is in, and the rock goes up, it will look even more amazing! 

Almost done!

In addition to my joy that it is finally coming together, I just can't wait to curl up in front of a blazing fire with my lovely family and be warm and cozy. Thursday can't come soon enough! 

Stay Warm! 

xo Jena

---