Ta Daaaa

had to chip away bricks to get pipe in

 Just in time for the first 60 degree day of the year!!!

now

before

HOORAY!!!!      Blake did an amazing job with the tile - and I think it looks great.         


More later - the trim isnt done yet, so I want to wait until its all done to show the big picture.
                        

It Begins

The Wall Comes Down.

Note the exposed area where the wall between our living and 'dining' room once was. The house seems much bigger already! Im pretty sure I hear an echo when I talk.


Left: from the front door

Right: from the kitchen

I came home from work last Wednesday, and found a very clean construction site and no wall! I love the feeling of being in here now. Very exciting. Blake always warns of the too typical remodeling homeowner dilemma: the beginning steps are very fast and noticeable, very instantaneously gratifying; the latter steps are insatiably slow and detail-oriented. I can imagine the frustration.


Up Next: The Chimney
We have torn out the hearth and Blake reinforced the floor from the basement so that it is truly flat. The framework is done - so hopefully by the end of this weekend the picture from this angle will be very different.

The framing is set so that a 37"ish flat screen TV can fit in between the studs in the top section. We are battling with our plan here: We have never, never had a stationary TV in our living area - which is a good thing, but also results in us dragging our heavy old tube out every time we want to watch a movie. . . So we are ready to make the change, but still don't want the boob tube to be the focal point. The general ideal is to somehow have a facade of some sort (canvass art?, something lightweight--) that can drop down behind the framing like a 'trap door' when we want to watch. But the logistics are complicated, especially when you take into account the heat from the wood stove. So this is still a work in progress. But our tiles are in and hopefully we can make some progress over the weekend.