The Finished Fireplace

Today Frank and I tore down the oak shelves and Frank took them out to his shop.  He brought in the finished mantel and had to work with it for quite a while. Getting the tile backboard into place was a job for him as evidently the board had swelled and it wouldn't fit, so Frank had to work on that for a while.  Then the Amish fireplace wouldn't slide into the slots he had made, so that took some more work chipping out some of the grout and finally he got it to slide in. All the hard work was worth the finished product.  It sure looks nice, and it changes the look of our family room.  Now I have to figure out where to put all of my family pictures. That will be another project and some thinking about it on my part.

I feel bad when things don't go smooth for Frank and he has to work so hard to get the kinks out.  He can't bend, kneel, or get down on the floor like he used to and it hurts him.  I don't think there will be too many more projects for him as it is just too hard on him.

I am starting to feel like a clutter bug again, and I really need to think about going through each room and getting rid of junk.  First I have to organize my office files for the new year and get my income tax stuff together.  My desk is driving me nuts as it is full of clutter, I want to bring the garbage can in and start throwing all that clutter away. 

We were going to have a yard sale, but it is just too hard to get it all together, so I told Frank we need to start taking a load of stuff over to the DI as we gather it.  It amazes me how much junk we have accumulated over the years, and we have cleaned out some of it at different times, but we haven't even scratched the surface.  Well, hopefully I can get motivated and start the spring cleaning process, room by room.  Wish me luck and energy to do it

MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT



Amish Fireplace



I have been wanting to order an Amish Fireplace ever since I saw one in a friend's home, and then have Frank build a mantel to go around it.  When we found out that his back has healed, and he could play golf once again.  I figured he would be able to build the mantel.  So this would become my Christmas present from him.  I made a mistake and didn't really check out the different types as my friend's has a smoldering fire look.  I was impressed with it.  So what did I order the one that doesn't do that.  May be sometime in the future, I will order the heater part that has that function. 

This is the beginning of the project

After we received the fireplace, we started to talk about what we wanted, and then Frank looked at mantels on the Internet and we found one that we liked and he is using it as a pattern.

The plan coming together





Frank took the fireplace out to work with.  He took the wheels off and set it inside the mantel.  He has built a back piece and is talking about putting rock on it.  Today he nailed the back piece on and put the primer on.  He is going to paint it antique white which matches our molding and trim in our home.  I forgot to take a picture of it today.  We are going to put the fireplace next to the wall where our oak shelves are. The oak shelves are going to the DI.

One more step, Frank painted it antique white.  We went to Home Depot and picked out some tile to put on the back board that will fill the hole in the middle.  Frank will break the tile into pieces and place them on the back board.  I can't wait to see the finished product.