Fireside Chat

In our idyllic little Pacific Northwest town, there are two kids of houses: the long skinny 1960's ranch with three tiny windows that are all jammed right up under the roof, and the kind that costs $600K.  We were looking for neither of those, so we knew we'd be unlikely to get anything else on our long wish list.  Forget the basement, forget the spacious kitchen, forget the master bath, the second story, the four bedrooms, etc etc etc.  One of the things we thought we'd probably have to live without was a fireplace.

Under the patient guidance of our awesome realtor, we looked at lots of houses.  We even seriously considered buying some of them, but each one had a fatal flaw. There was the cool mid-century modern house on the hill that was just way too big and expensive to update; the gorgeous craftsman located on a way-too-busy street; and my ultimate dream house, the 1944 Cape Cod with beautiful views that was literally sliding down the hill atop which it was perched.  We were about to offer on the groovy mid-century pad when one of our friends alerted us to the For Sale By Owner on a great street in a quiet neighborhood right by campus.  We went to see it right away.  

 When we walked into the living room, this is what we saw: 

So the place had some issues-- notice hatchets and guns hanging on the wall, cat tree (plus freaky evil-eyed cat in the foreground!), etc.  But there was a fireplace!  Granted, there was a woodstove stuffed into it, and and there was a huge white-painted wooden frame around the ugly tile the woodstove installers had used to extend the hearth.  I asked our realtor if he thought there was original hardwood under that gross tile, and he basically told me not to hold my breath.

Here's another view:

When we finally moved in, the awful woodstove was gone, and I had to know what was under the tile.  I got some good news right away: first, the tile wasn't glued directly to the floor as our realtor had feared-- it was sitting on some cement backer-board.  Dad (who-- mid-bathroom reno-- really wasn't busy with anything else, har har) ripped the whole thing up in one fell swoop...

... and now it's sitting on our back deck, where it keeps our charcoal grill from starting a fire.  

Underneath, as you can see, there was slightly damaged but definitely salvageable hardwood and a clear indication of where the original hearth had been.  Yesss!

So the three-phase game plan for the fireplace became:
1.  paint brick surround white
2.  refinish damaged wood floors
3.  tile with white marble subway tiles

Phase one is complete.  I'm making it sound really simple, but it actually required like 52 separate steps.  Bor-ing.  Here's the finished product:

 Blurry, I know, and the lighting is horrible.  Sorry.

Next up-- refinishing floors and tiling!  We know nothing about how to do either of those things, by the way.  Updates to come.