Fireplace Renovation!

We've lived in our house now for

12 1/2 years!

Which, considering that we are a family of 11 (8 of us being active, wrestling, rough-housing males), that we live on a ranch with lots and lots (and lots) of mud, dirt, sand, creek water, wet hay, and other materials that enter the house on a daily basis, and that we are here most of the time and live in it big and hard, this house has fairly aged about 60 years.

That being said, my 2021 Christmas present from Weston (along with socks, slippers and Ticket to Ride) is to make our house nice again.

So, first item on the list...

The Fireplace

I don't have a great full on front shot of it because, well probably because I avoid it being in pictures. I was always trying to make it look nicer, like maybe we should add a shelf because I would love a mantel (my nephew is holding it up so I could see what it would look like):

It was cement that was made to look like stone and was chipping and rough and hard to clean. It has never been a look I love. It had those 2 awkward openings on the left, which was practical for wood, but really the top shelf just became a catch-all. It was deep and weird and off-center.

Christmas 2020's Bethlehem dinner with the off-center fireplace in the background.

So one day last summer (2020), I finally did it; I was ready to make a change. I grabbed a crowbar and a mallet and started ripping off the stone cement. Weston walked in for lunch while I was mid-demo and I turned and looked to see what his reaction was. 

He didn't really have one. It was like he wasn't surprised, or like he was expecting it. Hahaha! 

Pretty soon I had a team that wanted to help. 

And man did they help!!

These 4 in particular:

Jonah was the king on the vacuum clean up, Spencer did a lot of the have-to-hit-it-super-hard tear out, and Oliver stuck with it forever and kept going back to it over the few days that we took to do it. I was impressed with their sticktoittiveness.

Finally, it was ready for the next step: 

Studs!

We've got both kinds of studs around here!

Then sheetrock:

Yay! The holes are filled! Looks good, Rancher!

Trying to figure out what kind of tile. For me, this was the hardest part...trying to decide on the tile and find the hearth stone. I knew how I wanted everything else. 

Making a hearth:

Finally, after a long search going to different granite manufacturers, I found a remnant piece that fit our budget and the just the look we wanted. We really wanted granite for its durability and easy to clean quality.

We had an old fireplace surround that had been in our bedroom, so we took it off the wall up there and brought it down and Weston screwed it to the wall. This was to be temporary while helping us visualize what we wanted there. 

For Christmas, we wanted it to look pretty, but hadn't figured out exactly what we wanted yet. On Christmas Eve we painted the sheetrock, even though it looked pretty bad, it was good enough for Christmas! LOL!

Then after Christmas, the temporary mantel and surround came off and shiplap started to go up! Yessssss!

For the mantel and surround, I drew what I wanted on the wall and Weston made it happen! 

The beginnings:

Trying to figure out the mantel piece was a bit tricky. He had found a really cool beam outside somewhere. It was soaking wet and had moss growing on it, which was pretty cool. 

Trying to see if we even like the size:

But after reading what is code for fireplace mantels - combustibles distance away from the fire - we realized it wasn't to code and wouldn't be safe. Our fires get really hot. Hahaha, that sounds duh-factor, but, no really, Weston can get our fire so super hot. His secret? Little pieces.

We finally went to Home Depot together and picked a tile that we both liked. I put wood filler in all the holes and cracks (as the kids watched Encanto), sanded, and painted with a paint with added primer. I painted it with Swiss Coffee (the color we had painted our trim back in our very first house in Carson City, NV in 2004) eggshell (or was it satin) on the walls and Swiss Coffee semigloss on the window trim and mantel and surround. Zoe stayed up late with me and painted all of the tiny squares on the trim above the firebox with a tiny watercolor paintbrush. Sweet girl!

Okay, enough explanation and no more pictures. Ready for the reveal??

I give you..... 

(in all its imperfection cuz we're novices, not builders, and we still need to add baseboards after we get a new floor)

The Fireplace

We totally love it!! I'm proud of Weston for his hard work and how well it turned out!

Oh yeah, we need to add crown moulding, too. I also want to change the texture on the ceiling, or do something different up there. And decorate.

We had extra shiplap, and I think Weston likes doing it, so he kept going. I love it. I told him he could shiplap any wall he would like.

For the record, I've liked the shiplap look long before Fixer Upper, and long before Pinterest even. I've liked it before I even knew the name of it, or heard anyone else say they liked it; back when you looked at home magazines and ripped a page out when you liked the picture/idea and put it into a plastic sleeve into your Home Ideas 3-ringed binder. Anyone? Yep, I definitely had one.

Looking good! Not finished- still need to fill the nail holes, sand, and paint- but definitely looking good!