The Fireplace Reno: Part 1

When Justin and I bought our house, one of the features we loved was the fireplace... we also hated the fireplace. (Justin would like me to reaffirm he thought the fireplace was fine - I'll take full credit for this when I write the final blog post with the "after" pictures.)

At face value, it was lovely - a two-sided showpiece that was a focal point for the living and dining room. But as we I lived with it for awhile, we I felt that something was missing... more like the builder ran out of money and just threw something together.

Those large alcoves would signify "great art goes here"... We don't have great art... we have firelogs.

I mean... where's the mantel??

So... we decided we needed to change our perfectly good fireplace... and do a makeover of epic porportions... the kind that is summed up in a nice "look how easy this is" DIY Network 30 second vignette.

This is our 3-month long vignette.

IT STARTED WITH AN IDEA... AND FINISHED WITH ME WINNING

As I mentioned, we had been toying with the idea of an update. In fact, we had been planning for about a year by the time we finally started. Justin wanted a stone fireplace like he had growing up... I wanted a stacked stone fireplace because 1. It looked awesome and 2. it looked like expontentially less work than hauling full-sized stones.

In what the world will never know as The Great Fireplace Debate of 2014, I won. It also helped that I had an ace up my sleeve... my parent's recent renovation of their fireplace...

See how pretty?

Decision made.

SO YOU'RE DOING THIS YOURSELVES??

Yes. We did our fireplace renovation ourselves for a few reasons.

1. We wanted the gratification of having built something with our hands.

....

Ok that's a lie. We did it ourselves because of:

1. Budget

2. Clearly we were home reno experts after having binge-watched Rehab Addict.

SO IT BEGINS

When I say we DIY'd our fireplace... that was start to finish.

I have to say, if you're ever feeling DIY-dangerous, Seconds and Surplus is an awesome place for materials. Not only do they have a huge selection - the prices are pretty reasonable and the staff is extremely helpful (even if they did sell us mortar instead of thinset - I mentally cussed them out during a 9pm Home Depot trip for that one).

So with materials ordered, we started to get anxious to see progress on our now-investment...

Shiz. Just. Got. Real.

We only did a little demo that night - sure our perfectly good fireplace now looked perfectly horrible, but I had the vision. 

About a week later, we got a call that our stone order came in so we made the 20 minute trek to pick it up.

If you've read my post on the safe, you'll recall that we don't exactly have luck when it comes to trailers... three hours at the store later and I've determined that was no one-time incident.

Slightly deflated from my original "I'm totally going to knock this whole thing out this weekend" we were on our way. Five minutes later we pulled over and I'll summarize from here:

1. Ratchet strap was loose.

2. Justin attempts to fix it.

3. It's still loose.

4. Justin attempts again to fix it.

5. It's still loose.

6. Justin throws rachet strap across the parking lot.

7. I check the return policy on the receipt and then remember we've already ripped a huge gash into the fireplace.

8. I pick up the rachet strap.

9. Justin finally fixes it and we go home.

10. We don't work on the fireplace that night.

OH... I FORGOT TO MENTION

During this little home DIY excursion I had decided to do a "No-Drink January" challenge. This proves regretable for the entire 31 days...