Fireplace is Finished…Finally!

We had installed our new fireplace back at the end of January (blog about it here) to be an option to help keep our house warm in the winter.  Between the end of February and March 15 our furnace was either off or just not running because it had already been so warm in the house.  We discovered that we could get the house up to 74 degrees easily if we wanted too even with it below freezing outside.  As time allows and I continue to heal I hope to be able to get more aggressive with finding my own supply of wood and having a few years of supply on hand.  I’ve already figured out the perfect way to have multiple chords stacked and drying once we’re able to finish the back yard so we have the space at least…!

But in the middle of the project we had a bit of a setback with our budget.  Our chimney chase needed a new metal cap to it as the old one was totally rusted and trashed.  We had an AWESOME group of guys that worked as the chimney and chimney chase cap installers (and our lead guy works as a firefighter for IFD too!), and did a great job.  Without the deal they gave us we would have been dead in the water but they worked with us on the new stainless cap and it came out perfectly.  On top of that I had a back procedure in early March that limited me for a little bit and we’ve just been going 12 miles a minute since.

So this is what we’ve been looking at since January, a fireplace with cement board on the walls and floor taken on February 14, 2012:

So, what’s the issue?

Well, the chimney cap soaked up my decorative finish budget line for the fireplace.  So it’s been in that almost finished state that I hate so much.  With the media stuff coming to our house we decided to finally bite the bullet and get it done last week.  And that’s exactly what we did; with Lauren’s help we got the stone finish on the front and I’m pretty happy with how it came out!  Lauren did the heavy lifting, I did the stone cutting with a wet saw, and we got messy and had fun seeing the final result.  As usual, teamwork in the Hanley house to get something done!

The Finished Product:

The only thing we need to do to finish this wall is get the custom bookcases/cabinets on either side.  Those will house our house media items, a small computer to use as a home theater PC and a place to have some books and pictures.  And the fact that Lauren loves built in bookcases by fireplaces more than anyone I’ve ever met!

Just like any young couple, we do what we can as we can afford it.  I’m trying to scrounge some butcher block counter top for our laundry area to finish that, need to get some metal fabrication done to finish the fireplace air intake outside, and have high hopes to figure out a way to get the deck built (by somebody else) by late fall.  We love our home and have many other big plans for it as we can swing them!

Cheers

-th