a tale of two fireplaces

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We love a good fire to cozy up to in the winter, but we just couldn’t get excited about the existing fireplace when we bought our house. Something just seemed off about the placement of it in this room. It was also way too big for the width of the room and stuck out, making furniture placement a challenge. The final straw: it wasn’t our style.

I tried to think of a way to overgrout the existing faux stone but Tom assured me that just wouldn’t work and we couldn’t accomplish the look I was going for. We also racked our brains trying to think of a way to center the firebox on this wall—but there was just no good way to do that. The scale was just wrong, too. It was too obtrusive and took up so much precious space. So we sketched out a better version of this living room with the fireplace on the back wall. Of course, that meant that this original fireplace would have to come out. Oh boy.

We pictured the new fireplace on this back wall as a focal point flanked by built-ins. When you’re renovating, you’ve got to tap into your imagination and hone in on a really solid vision for the finished design. This will guide the process. Dale Carnegie calls it '“beginning with the end in mind”. Even when all you can see is plush, beige, wall-to-wall carpet and a deflated balloon floating aimlessly near the ceiling, you have to cling to your vision. Sometimes you’ll be the only one that can see it.

Demo day(s) were here! This mantel was a beast. And that faux stone wasn’t going to be a picnic either. Good thing this is a family affair and we have two boys that enjoy wielding sledgehammers and crow bars.

Whew! Mantel out! Now let’s get the rest of this mess out of here.

We like that the kids are helping to make this house our home. And surely they’re learning a few valuable real world lessons along the way. What to do. What not to do. How to bounce back when you make a mistake and have to do something over. Every day requires creativity and problem-solving and getting dirty—all good stuff.

We demo’ed that faux stone. Byeeeee.

And then we lived like this for awhile with backpacks strewn about, furniture this way and that, and projects in process. This is the side of home renovations that you rarely see. The day-to-day reality of living in the middle of a reno.

Sketching it out brought the vision to life a little bit more. And the perfect stone for the fireplace was there in our imagination, too. But before we could have too much fun creating the new, we had to finally get rid of the old.

We demo’ed the original fireplace and got it down to the backer board.

More demo of layer upon layer.

And sometimes it just takes plain ol’ brute force to do the thing.

Do you see it?? Do you??? It’s happening!

We’re so happy we decided to change the placement of the fireplace. It just makes sense to have it on that back wall.

And now….here we are. Almost there, but not really. I’m so thankful to Polycor for their partnership in this project and am SO glad we started fresh with their beautiful Indiana limestone. It’s been one year since we bought the house and started the reno and we still have so much more to do. This room has taken awhile, but we’re close. Carpet is out and hardwood is in (not sanded and finished yet), the fireplace is in (but no built-ins yet), drywall is up (but not finished and painted), fan is down (but no chandelier or recessed lighting to replace it yet), windows are in (but the stickers are still on), seventies wall vents are out and flush mount vents are installed (but unfinished), baseboard isn’t in yet, and random furniture is in (which we’ll be taking right back out again). But it’s PROGRESS, and it’s home, and we’re getting there.