Goodbye Hearth

My fireplace is nothing short of 'unique'!  Sometimes unique isn't a good thing, as in my fireplace.

Hopefully the LAST fireplace reno was on my To Do List for this summer.

Demo is always fun!

This is when I started to 2nd guess myself!

A Little better.

Obviously I can pull 10" nails out, bust out brick, rebuild braces, but don't know the correct way to insert tile spacers!!!!!!  I wanted the smallest grout lines possible & have been very irritated with myself once I realized my mistake with the spacers.  Live and learn I guess, but I really wish my grout lines were smaller!

Love the herringbone pattern, but it was a tedious process for sure!

I originally wanted my mantle lowered, but decided it would be too big of a process to rip out the wall to remove it.

Lyndon banged-up the wood for me.  He thought that was a lot of fun!

I then used the Pinterest apple cider vinegar and steel wool stain for the mantle.

Original fireplace when we bought our home. 1999After removing the doors and paint. 1999

We removed part of the hearth in 2003 when I built the built-ins.

& currently 2013.  

*A local welding shop is creating the door I designed for the fireplace and then it will be complete.