The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be here.
And yes, we actually have a working chimney and a way for St. Nick to enter for the very first time.
A full fireplace post will come in the new year.
For now, I want to say thank you all for reading. Have a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy the holidays.
Work on the fireplace continues. Our mason originally expected this to be a one-week project, maybe a day or two over. But it turns out our fireplace is large. After two weeks of 9+ hour days, the fireplace is not yet done. But we’ve come a long way.
Last week, the fireplace looked like this.
Now, it looks like this.
You heard a little bit about the hearth stone on Friday. Before I get into the other activities from the week, Baxter has a video to share with you about carrying in the slab.
A few other things happened before we were ready for the hearth. First, the chimney went up both inside and out. As you may recall, the old chimney was pretty much the whole reason for this redo. It’s surprisingly thrilling to have a big, solid, proper chimney. My Dad and I still have a bit of flashing to do, hence all of the wrapping.
The cinder block rough-in was completed, and then the firebox was constructed. That’s what our mason was working on in this photo that you saw on Friday where he’s sitting inside the fireplace.
The second most exciting part of the week was installing the mantel. When he was building the structure of the fireplace, our mason installed four pieces of rebar. The bars went back into the block about 2 feet and were securely cemented in place. They stuck out on the face of the fireplace by about 1 foot.
My Dad and I drilled carefully placed holes on barn beams that matched up with the pieces of rebar, and then Matt and I slid the beams onto the bars. Voilà , mantel. Or half a mantel. This photo shows the first beam in place. The second beam goes on in front of this one and hides the ends of the rods.
This weekend, I gave the mantel a few coats of clear varathane to protect it and bring out the quality of the wood a little bit more. I’m giddy over this mantel. The rough barn wood is just so beautiful.
If the mantel was the second most exciting, what was the first, you ask? Absolutely the most exciting development of this whole project was seeing the face stone going on. I picked the stone fairly quickly, but then I doubted myself for the past three weeks. Had I picked the right stone? Would it look good in our house? Would I like it once it was installed? Should I have made more effort to source other options?
Well, I love the stone. It’s exactly what I was envisioning. Rough field stone that looks like it could have come from our own farm.
Here’s another montage of how the fireplace has progressed from the start up to now.
We have at least a few days yet to go. By the end of the week, everything should be done (although I can’t promise the post-reno clean-up will be complete).
I was super happy when our stone supplier was able to source a single piece of stone for our hearth. No seams! Score. 🙂 However, now we’re at the point of installing the hearth. Moving a who-knows-how-heavy stone! Not so score. 😦
The stone is 10 feet long by 18 inches wide by 2 1/2 inches thick. Every time it has moved up to now has involved a forklift. However, we face two problems:
We are relying on people power. Pure brute strength.
I do not have good photos to illustrate the scale of this task because, you see, I really didn’t think ahead to consider the scale of this task.
So here’s the hearth at the far right peeking out from behind the skids of stone back when they were first delivered two and half weeks ago.
And here’s our mason sitting inside the fireplace, just to give you an idea of the size that we’re working with.
The plan was that Matt and I would get home from work a bit early last night and together with our contractor we’d move the hearth into place. Well, I made it home, but Matt got caught in a snowstorm and spent two hours on the road. Our mason and I tested moving the stone on our own. Not gonna happen.
New plan. The three of us would reconvene this morning at 6am before Matt left for work.
Matt and I did a test last night when he finally made it home. His verdict? “Woman, I don’t know if this is gonna happen, even with three of us.”
So we did what you always do in this situation: call Dad.
So the new, new plan is a stone moving party at our house this morning at 6am. There will be Matt’s Dad, the mason, Matt and me. Baxter will be here too, though he probably will not be very much help.
Wanna join us? It’ll be a special way to start your day. 😉
I realize most of you will be reading this after the stone moving party has ended. However, we’d still appreciate if you could send your good wishes. Heck, send levitation charms. Send muscle enhancing drugs. We’ll take all the help we can get!
Update: The stone is in place and is still in one piece. Yay! Full fireplace update to come on Monday.
It’s time for the first official update on the fireplace project. You got little tidbits last week, but today you get details and photos.
For a reminder, here’s what the fireplace looked like originally.
And here was the plan.
To make this plan happen, we had to start over.
There was no liner or flue in the chimney, so if I wanted a true–and safe–wood burning open hearth, we had to build a proper chimney. That meant starting on the roof and taking everything down.
Wiley was very helpful during demo. I pulled him up to the edge of the roof and raised the front-end loader so that I could throw the bricks into the bucket and then drive them around to our rock pile.
Of course, even tractors get tired. All was going well until Wiley decided that one load was too heavy. No tractors or drivers were harmed, but it was definitely an anxious moment.
Once we made it inside, it was more of the same: jackhammer, rubble and dust… lots and lots of dust. I’ve concluded that masonry dust is the worst kind of dust. Worse even than drywall dust. My hair has never been as stiff as it was on Monday night (no picture of that, sorry).
It turns out there’s a reason for everything. The fireplace is where it is and is the size it is because it’s a chase for pretty much everything you could think of. There were two chimneys to vent the old furnaces that we used to have. There was the fireplace insert and its wonky chimney. And then on the far left, there was a heating duct and cold air return for the pool room.
The bump-out that I hated so much was actually there for a reason. It wasn’t just decorative. It was concealing the heat run to the pool room. Since we’re not using the pool room yet and don’t need to heat it, we just capped off the duct. When it comes time to redo the pool room, we’ll run heat some other way.
After demo came rebuilding, which started a bit slowly. The wall behind the fireplace had to be insulated and then drywalled for fire protection, the duct had to be capped, the hearth had to be expanded, the base had to be laid. But by the end of the week some really good progress had been made. This fireplace is huge, so it takes a lot of time to put it all together.
Here’s how the fireplace progressed day by day.
We made some really good progress on the mantel yesterday, and we should be able to mount it by the middle of the week likely. I’m not sure that we’ll have everything finished this week, but we’re still on track to have fires by Christmas.
The fireplace is progressing. It’s still just cinder block, but it’s almost up to mantel height. You’re going to have wait a little while longer to see a picture. In the meantime, let’s take a little detour into the making of the mantel.
We started with some big barn beams. These have been lying outside the barn as long as we’ve owned the farm. You can see them beside Matt in this picture from our first summer.
They are huge, heavy hunks of wood. They were more than 12 feet long, and it took my Dad, Matt, his Dad and me to move them, even after Matt cut them down with his chainsaw.
When I came up with my plan to use our barn beams for the mantel on the new fireplace, I hadn’t examined them very closely. I expected the beams to resemble beams. Instead, they were very round.
To be a mantel, I was looking for something with some corners. One of the beams had one flat side, but that was it. My Dad found a local sawmill that would cut the beams square for me.
I love finding spots like the sawmill. They’re treasures of unique services and products. The variety of wood they had in their yard was amazing–trees, slabs, boards, logs, crosscuts, exotics, domestics. They mill custom flooring and trim. And of course they have cool equipment. I have to confess I’m looking for an excuse to go back.
After our logs went through the sawmill a few times, we ended up with two beautiful cedar beams 6 inches by 6 inches square. We’re going to sandwich them together to make one big 12 by 6 mantel. We were able to preserve the original flat side on the one beam. That’s going to end up facing into the room where its hand hewn face, complete with marks from the adze that originally shaped it, will be visible.
Attaching these two pieces and mounting them on the fireplace is a whole other issue–and tomorrow’s project. I think we’ve figured out our plan. Fingers crossed everything works out.
Anyone have any tips for installing the mantel? Have you ever custom-milled any of your own wood? Have you ever used reclaimed wood for a project?
The fireplace project is going well. We got it all down on Monday, and it started to go back up yesterday. Unfortunately, so far it’s rising pretty slowly, so I don’t have anything to show yet.
Let’s turn our attention to another part of the living room… or at least another part of the living room as it looked last week before everything was taken apart.
Last week when I showed you my family photo display, I kind of glossed over the piece of furniture that they were sitting on. Finding a table of some kind to go behind the couch in the living room was one of my Home Goals for 2014. I seem to be posting a lot of Home Goals these days. Credit it to a last minute surge in productivity before the end of the year.
The idea was to find something to hide the back of the couch, have some space for display and also provide some additional storage, mostly for the adjacent dining room.
The story of finding this piece illustrates why I have measurements of the furniture I’m hunting for and a tape measure in my purse at all times.
Someone was moving out of an office at work. The cleanout uncovered a wood sideboard sitting opposite the desk. It looked like it might be close to the right dimensions. I dashed back to my office for my measurements and my tape. A surreptitious measurement session later, I had confirmed that it was the exact right height and the exact right depth. It was a little short, but I had an idea for that. Off I trotted down the hall to find someone with authority to ask if the sideboard was up for grabs. Of course, that turned out to be not the VP himself, but his assistant. She said, yes, I could take it.
Even though I had permission, when Matt and I were loading it into my Dad’s truck the following Saturday, I kept expecting security to come speeding up to the building. Luckily, we made a clean getaway.
Back at home, the sideboard fit perfectly in the living room… pretty much. It’s still a bit shorter than I wanted. (I’d love to put a pair of lamps on it and clear off our end tables). Here’s that first photo again. See how the couch is sticking out on either side?
My original plan had been to cut the sideboard in half and insert some open shelving in the middle. A new top and new trim around the bottom would camouflage the addition, and then I’d paint it all out.
Well, once I had the sideboard, that plan didn’t seem like such a good idea. It’s really, really well made, and I feel like chopping it up would be a bit of a crime. (Plus I was told it’s a Krug, which is apparently pretty good furniture). Yes, there are some dings in the wood, but I feel like I’d rather refinish it than paint it. It’s a beautiful colour that’s actually pretty close to our dining room table (which also needs to be refinished).
If I decide I truly cannot live without a sofa table that’s the full length of my sofa, I will probably start over and source or make a complete new one.
For now, this thing is awesome. I love having the shallow drawers at the top. To be honest, I’m only using one of them, but it holds all of my napkins, so I don’t need more space yet.
For the cabinets themselves, I’m using even less. My piano books take up half of one lower shelf, but other than that the sideboard is empty.
So much for needing storage. Oh well. Let’s call it room to grow. We’re obviously still a work in progress over here.
What would you do with this sideboard if it was yours? Do you have a sofa table, or some another piece of furniture behind your couch, at your house?
So remember back in November when I said, “No more projects until 2015”?
And remember before that when I talked about the living room fireplace? And before that when I posted my Home Goals 2014? (And 2013?)
Ummm, yeah. So we’re doing the fireplace.
Right now.
The stone–six skids of it–was delivered a week ago. Ralph signed off after a careful inspection.
Yes, I believe Santa will fit down this chimney.
We gathered the various barn beams we have lying around (yeah, we’re lucky like that) and picked out a couple of contenders for the mantel. Since they were closer to tree trunks than lumber, on Saturday my Dad and I took them to a local sawmill and had them squared off.
Matt and I removed the extremely heavy metal insert yesterday. We emptied the living room to get ready for demo and taped off all of the openings with plastic in a (probably vain) attempt to contain the dust and soot.
I should be clear that this is not a DIY project for us. We do not possess the expertise to build a fireplace. However, a close family friend does. He’s a professional mason, and he did all of the brickwork on my parents’ house, including their fireplace, and worked with my Dad for years. We’ve hired him. So when I say we’re doing the fireplace, I have a loose definition of we and doing.
I’m off work today to help with the take down, and I’m planning to work from home a couple of days this week, but my involvement will be very limited.
Regardless of my minimal contributions, we should have a new fireplace by Christmas.
Now that’s what I call a present.
One of the biggest hits at our month-before-Christmas party over the weekend (aside from the food) was a family photo display that I added to the living room. Everyone who came to the party spent time looking at the pictures.
It was neat to see my young nephews, who never met their great grandparents, getting to know them a little bit more through their pictures. I liked talking with Matt’s uncle about my family and introducing him to some of my relatives.
The photos sit on the sideboard behind the couch. Some frames face the living room and some face the dining room. The frames mostly came from Value Village. In the store, the smaller frames (for photos 4 inches by 6 inches or less) are bundled together and sold for just a couple of dollars. Which is great, because I think the smaller frames work best for a display like this since I can squeeze in more photos. (And I already have plans to add a few more frames).
To fill the frames, I chose a mix of pictures from Matt’s and my families. My Mom and I spent a fun afternoon a few weeks ago going through all of our old albums so that I could pick out some of my favourites.
I love having our family members with us. It was great to see everyone at the party on the weekend, and it’s nice to have the reminder of them in the pictures throughout the year.
How do you display family photos?
This year’s birthday present is one of the most special gifts I’ve ever been given. Matt, my family and his parents all went in together to buy me a painting.
The painting is of a waterfall in the town where I grew up.
I hiked the trails around this waterfall and waded in this creek so many times. The waterfall doesn’t really have a name, but the whole gorge around it is called Smokey Hollow (which is also the name of the painting). I’ve heard a couple of explanations for the name Smokey Hollow. One is the mist from the waterfall made the hollow “smokey.” The second is literal smoke which came from all of the mills that used to be throughout the valley. In fact, the creek that runs over this waterfall is called Grindstone Creek.
Wherever the name came from, this is a beautiful spot that’s very special to me, and to have it memorialized in a painting was something that I couldn’t resist.
This was painted by a local artist named Brian Darcy. He paints nature and farms and the countryside. I could buy pretty much every one of his paintings.
This particular painting, I’ve wanted since I was in high school. It means so much that my family came together to give this to me.
Since we painted the living room and set up the bookcases on the opposite side of the room, we had a perfect wall for it.
Matt made all of the arrangements to buy the painting, but what made this extra special was that we actually got to meet Brian. We saw some of his works in progress and learned about his painting process and heard some of the story behind the Smokey Hollow painting.
He even gave us copies of a little study he did from the painting. Down in the bottom right corner on the shore of the creek, there’s a little cluster of pink wildflowers. Flitting around the flowers is a Swallowtail butterfly. Well, Brian took that scene and did a separate small little painting.
My family has known for a long time that I wanted this painting. Last year, my Mom went down to Smokey Hollow and took a picture for me. She had it printed and framed and gave it to me for my last birthday.
I still need to find the perfect place to hang this one. Since Smokey Hollow is such a special spot for me, I think I’m allowed to have two pictures of it.
Anyone else have a story of finally getting something you’ve waited a long time have? Do you have any mementos of where you grew up? Even though this was a gift, this is Matt’s and my first time spending any significant amount of money on art. I have to say I’m feeling pretty grown up about it. Have you invested in art?
I didn’t really have project this month, but I did say that I wanted my books back. That meant finishing the bookshelf makeover that I started in August.
You might recall that in my original photo you could barely see the bookshelves because they were painted such a dark brown (oh, and hidden behind boxes that have been packed for two and a half years).
Well, not anymore. Behold the view from the same angle.
Bright and white and, best of all, filled with books. Hello beloveds.
The bookshelves wrap the one corner of the living room and tuck behind the comfy lounging chair that I inherited from my grandmother.
I’m pretty happy with how things have come together. I know a lot of people struggle with styling bookshelves, and I’m no different. I’m decently satisfied with the middle section right now.
As always, the contents of the shelves have a lot of meaning for us. Besides the books we have some very special treasures.
The trophy is Matt’s grandma’s won for a school running race in 1935 when she was in high school, my dad made the small lidded wood pot on his lathe, and the hammer on the top right was a gift from my grandmother to Matt and unscrews to reveal decreasing sizes of screwdrivers. Towards the bottom, we have a brick I found in the backyard of our first house that has our city’s name stamped on it. Below that there’s a picture of Matt and me at Niagara Falls back when we first started dating, and beside that a miniature replica of Rodin’s The Kiss. (Rodin is our favourite sculptor. A miniature of The Thinker is on an adjacent shelf). The half naked man (or more accurately naked half man) was a high school art class project.
I want to tuck a few more knick knacks in some of the empty spaces, and I definitely need to get some bookends. I’ll continue to futz with the arrangement, but regardless of what things look like, I’m thrilled to have my books back.
Perhaps it’s because I had bookshelves on the brain, but as I was pulling my shelves together they seemed to be popping up on other blogs as well:
I cannot explain how thrilling it is to have my books back. I came across a few I’d forgotten I had and of course lots of old favourites. In fact the borrowed book that I was half-way through may have been set aside in favour of an old favourite. (I never do that. I’m always a one-book-at-a-time woman).
Plus, setting up the bookshelves gave us an excuse to paint some more of the living room and unpack about 16 boxes that had been piled in the corner. The room feels so much more finished! … Well, we’re still a long way from finished. At least it’s a little bit closer to the vision in my head.
How do you handle book storage at your house? Besides books, what’s on your bookshelves? Any tips on styling bookshelves? Who else is a one-book-at-a-time reader?
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