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