Fireplace Renovation

When we did our house renovation we knew that we had to address our fireplace.  We love having a fireplace - even in South Florida (I know, I know - we don't get to use it very often, but when we do, it's wonderful to have!).  However, the fireplace in the house was not something to write home about.  Would you like to see what I mean? 

Isn't this thing beautiful?  Not. 

Before we go any further I want to apologize right up front for the quality of some of these pictures.  Some are pictures of pictures (remember me telling you about not having the original pictures of the house on my computer?) and there are a lot of pictures.  However, I have to show you the progression of the project.  So, please forgive the quality and the amount of pictures you are about to see. 

Now, back to the fireplace - it get worse -

See the angled walls - right in front of the fireplace is an area that was the original dining room and the kitchen is to the right - pool is through the sliding glass door to the left.

Now you can see the kitchen a little better (I'll do a post on the kitchen at a later date).  This was the house when the Mountain Man and I moved in - and the location made it practically useless.

This was just before the remodeling project began - haven't pack everything up yet but you can see all the angles around the fireplace.

Let the project begin --------

Day One of the project - master bedroom in the back.  All the walls are gone and MM has removed all the stone from the fireplace.

While all that ugly stone is gone - we still have the problem of ANGLES!  They have to go!  So, Mountain Man tore all the mesh off the face of the fireplace and then we drywalled with squared-up walls.

 Some people have asked us if we moved the fireplace.  We did not, but by making all the walls straight and square it looks like we did.

The Mountain Man at work!

This is the house during the middle part of the renovation project - a little bit of a mess huh?  Such fun to live in!!!!

Okay- floor has been installed, tile around the fireplace, and walls have been painted.  Now, it's time to finish up the fireplace!

Still a work in progress.

More detail of the wood working as MM progressed.

First shelf installed and the surround is pretty much complete.

First coat of paint.

A few days later and - Yahoo! 

It's done!

By squaring up the walls we had enough room to add these decorative shelves.  I'll tell you - this was not the original plan - we had thought that we were going to put a closed cabinet with a couple of shelves above - but after thinking about it we thought it would be heavy.  So, we decided just to have the open shelving instead.

This is our seating area in front of the fireplace.  No longer is this space wasted - it is a wonderful place to sit, enjoy the fire, and read.  The chairs swivel and rock so they are very comfortable - you can even swivel around and watch TV in the great room.

I love our new fireplace area and I think there is a huge difference from

                                                        this

to

this.

What do you think?  Do you think we made good decisions in this area?

Would love to hear your opinion - so drop me a "line" in the comments, but PLEASE remember to 'play' nice.

Thanks!

Hugs!

Carol 

P.S. 

I think that I have removed the comment verification from my blog.  If someone would leave me a comment and let me know if, in fact, I have removed this pain in my side I would GREATLY appreciate it!

Thanks!!!!

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