I have opposite problem/question. My house came with fireplace that has 8" tall hearth with slab on top which seems to be sandstone, and which now has a hole in it the size of a few quarters. I never liked the color anyway, and I would like to have granite instead. It seems the easiest least expensive make-over would be to just put a slab of granite on top of the sandstone (with mortar in between). Is this feasible, or is the sandstone too weak to support the granite?

From my very different perspective, in the middle of the Great Eastern Forest that was eastern North America, there are some undisturbed areas, but the trees there are not massive. Too much competition by lower growth small trees and woody shrubs that require rain and lots of it. With the rain comes thunder and lightening strikes. It's not that one tree grows up and takes over, it's the whole forest that moves upwards, together. We have about 100 acres of woods and see so many lightening strikes that we don't have to decide which trees to take for wood. We just harvest the lightening struck ones. Growth is relatively rapid, and the trees don't take the time for their roots to go down and into crevasses in rocks for water. They just don't need to. This leads to additional problems. People plant these trees as single specimen plants. Wet soil with strong winds topple these trees easily. In the forest the interwoven roots are self supporting. When we first bought this farm, there was a huge oak back past the larger barn. I remember musing that it had seen so many families and would be there after I was gone. Wrong. We have an oak disease move through and it took 5/6 of the tree before we knew we had a problem, the remaining 1/6 leafed out the next year and then died. Dense populations of trees make for easy spread of diseases. Our forests are far more dynamic that I realized thirty years ago, and they are changing with little regard for putting on years of growth as individuals.

Following framing, electricians should install power/cable/hdmi boxes. Granite installers will take that into account for cutouts. There are those who love to see a TV above the fireplace and others simply detest it. I've always been the latter, then again in our new home we changed our mind because it made perfect sense to have the TV above the long linear fireplace. I feel it is important to tie the backdrop fireplace wall, its height and width, fireplace type and dimensions, TV dimensions and placement, and most importantly TV viewing distance, all together. What it is you want to stand out, the wall, the TV or the fireplace; focusing on the TV makes most sense since it will be the changing wall segment (when switched on). A TV above a 5' or more fireplace, watched from a distance of 10' is going to create neck strain, even a 65" TV watched from a distance of 15' is likely to create a neck strain forcing a user to gaze up. The same TV 40-45" off the floor would work fine from say 15'-20'; it all depends on the space you have; these are not formal calculations but can be worked out. In our case the 88" TV will be 44" off the floor, above an 8' linear fireplace for an average veiwing distance of 22', seating area in family room. The 9' wide x 12' tall x 2' deep fireplace/TV wall will be clad in 24x24 wall tiles; the fireplace/TV wall is set in the center of a 24' wide wall; search my posts for renderings.

I like the granite, and I like the mantle and wouldnt do anything with either of them. I also like the corner cabinet. It adds interest to the room. You may want to see if there is any other way to arrange furniture, so the tv could go elsewhere. It would be way too high above the mantle on the fireplace, and the fireplace, looks like it would be a bit too narrow for a tv thats bigger than the one on the corner cabinet. Is there another place in the house for tv watching, where you could use a larger tv, and just not have a tv in this room, or at least one bigger than one that is there now.