Almost there: Before and (almost) After

8 years ago

Just wanted to share:

I'm sitting here all cozy in the living room with a light spring rain falling outside the window,

and admiring our lovely new fireplace. As it just came online a few weeks ago, you'll understand that we haven't been able to use it much. The fireplace itself is very cool, but it's the tile that really does it for me. Let's start at the beginning.

This is the living room in the house we bought last July, and this is the original fireplace:

While we thought this an odd place to have put the fireplace, we figured we could work with it. We knew the floor dipped towards the fireplace, but we thought we could remedy it. Turns out we couldn't. When they built the house they didn't foot that massive brick structure adequately and there just wasn't a reasonable way to retrofit it. It was sinking and pulling down not only the floor, but also the wall on the back side you can't see in this photo. So the fireplace was dismantled, much to the intrigue of the new neighbors as the chimney bricks came flying off the roof. The fireplace people also jack-hammered up the tile "hall" and its 1.5" bed of mortar.

This is the same view today:

We un-sunk the living room and installed bamboo flooring. That closet door was always there, but was hidden in the paneling before. We've got the baseboards in, but the crown moulding is in the garage waiting for us. Look on the right hand wall and you can just barely see this:

The tile is Ona Natural NP 13x40. We saw this tile in the fireplace store and fell in love with it! This room isn't really finished. It's taken us a while to figure out how we wanted to arrange it. For months it was a storage spot for kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities and boxes of things waiting to go elsewhere. Now those things are where they belong and we have a real LR. We just ordered 2 love seats and 2 armchairs plus a console table for the wall where the original fireplace was. We're thinking floating bookshelves for either side of the fireplace. Someday we'll even be able to unpack our various paintings and photos. Meanwhile, love the fireplace!

Featured Answer

LynnNM

8 years ago

Wonderful, very major changes, Suzanne! It's like an ongoing HGTV show here for us. I love what you've done so far and can't wait to see the place with everything hung on the walls . . . and perhaps those floating bookshelves you mentioned.

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Comments (29)

suzanne_sl
Original Author
8 years ago
A close up of the tile
User
8 years ago
Wow! love the changes you've made!
suzanne_sl thanked User
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ck_squared
8 years ago
Gorgeous! Nicely done. So it was wood-burning previously and now gas. Do you miss the natural fireplace? How do you like the gas? I'm trying to talk DH into converting ours to gas as we haven't used the fireplace in over a year (don't like the smoke smell that seems to permeate everything no matter how the flue is set).
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suzanne_sl
Original Author
8 years ago
In our previous house we had a wood fireplace that we eventually converted to gas. DH really objected to the smoke. I kinda liked the crackling wood even with smoke, but I really liked being able to turn a key, prop my toesies up on the hearth and read a book. Hauling wood and ashes really did get old.

Where we live now the only new fireplaces allowed are not-wood. Wood burners are grandfathered in, but there are periodic no-burn days. Although you can't really see it, this fireplace has a fixed glass front with a very fine mesh in front of it to prevent little hands from getting burned. Not only that, it has a remote and a temperature setting, so it turns itself on and off as long as it's "on." It heats the whole house except for our bedroom which is pretty far away. Mostly we use the forced air for heat, but sometimes this is nice, like today.
ghostlyvision
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
What a beautiful transformation!
zmith
8 years ago
Much, much better! Enjoy your lovely new space!
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WalnutCreek Zone 7b/8a
8 years ago
You have created a lovely space.
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DYH
8 years ago
Very nice! Congratulations!
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anitamo
8 years ago
This is a beautiful transformation! Were you living in the house while that work was going on?
suzanne_sl thanked anitamo
laughablemoments
8 years ago
Nice work! It's truly lovely. May you enjoy much time in your revamped space.
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graywings123
8 years ago
Nice work, indeed!
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l pinkmountain
8 years ago
WOWZA!
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maddielee
8 years ago
Very nice!
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ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
8 years ago
You've transformed this space with great taste and ingenuity. The tile surround is like nothing I've ever seen and truly wonderful. Please do post again when everything is finished; I know it will all be beautiful. I'm so glad that people are getting away from wood fireplaces since they really add to air pollution.
suzanne_sl thanked ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
Yayagal
8 years ago
Stunning, great choice.
sushipup1
8 years ago
OMG, spectacular! Congratulations!
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nutsaboutplants
8 years ago
Suzanne, what vision and imagination to make something as beautiful as this out of what most people would have considered an ill-constructed, sinking room! Great transformation. Beautifully executed.
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suzanne_sl
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank all of you for your encouraging comments :-)

Yes, we were living here throughout. It was sort of like camping out. We had our kitchen (2 Costco tables, an induction hot plate, a toaster oven, and a Coleman stove) in a spare bedroom for months. First one bathroom was out of commission, then the other.
It's been an adventure. Many things needed to be done by professionals, but others we DIY'd, which is why the crown moulding isn't up yet. And painting the doors and changing the ugly door knobs. And sewing the cushions for the window seats in the bedrooms. Well, there's a few things left.
pudgeder
8 years ago
Just as everyone else has said, it's just beautiful!!
suzanne_sl thanked pudgeder
happy2b…gw
8 years ago
The entire transformation of the area is beautiful. Love the tile. Your adventure has great endings so far. Looking forward to seeing more.
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simplifyingmylife
8 years ago
Beautiful changes! You've really accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. We purchased a house the end of last July too, and are continually working on it. It's so much fun when you can actually hang your family pictures and art, etc. Starts to really feel like home!
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missymoo12
8 years ago
That is just scrumptious!!! When the dust settles it really is so worth it right?
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cat_mom
8 years ago
Such a nice difference!!! It looks terrific!
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party_music50
8 years ago
Beautiful!
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raphaellathespanishwaterdog
8 years ago
Nice work! We're in the UK and have done several (mainly) DIY renovations - or restorations as I prefer to call them with them all being at least 100 years old - and have lived on site throughout, so understand how stressful it can be. Our quickest complete restoration took three years, so good on you for making such dramatic progress so swiftly :) Spurs me on to get a wiggle on with our current house!

Raphaella x
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Gooster
8 years ago
Congratulations. What a beautiful transformation to such an unworkable, flawed situation (who designs a raised "hall" in front of a fireplace).
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malabacat
8 years ago
Your fireplace and fireplace wall are gorgeous!
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suzanne_sl
Original Author
8 years ago
(who designs a raised "hall" in front of a fireplace)

That was actually my first question when we saw this house!

Almost there: Before and (almost) After

LynnNM

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