They make power saws to undercut the brick just like you would cut a door jam and slide the wood under. You don't need to cut the whole brick. Just cut a 1/2 inch or so to slide the board into. See the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Saw

My contractor put down a reusable compressed paper product that comes in rolls. I think it's called "Rhino Board"? He said it's billed that you're supposed to be able to drive a forklift over it and not hurt the floor. I had no problems with workmen walking and moving heavy appliances with sharp metal feet and cabinets and other pieces of heavy furniture, parking them on it and moving them a few days later. I would point out that you have to make sure you put it (and tape it with the right tape) down over a perfectly clean floor. Putting it down over a couple of pebbles picked up in the treads of a boot could roll them around for weeks under the paper and -- bad surprise. But if you happened to have a bunch of old carpet you were ripping out somewhere, that would work too, pile side down. I wouldn't pay for it though, personally, or send extra carpet to the landfill.

thanks cny...I'm leaning towards no more stained glass too... this just came to me...after spending two days designing a stained glass piece. :( how about just a plain piece of glass insert, so that just the end of the shelves show and I can just display a few favorite pieces that I like,( that have sentimental value) such as the fruit girl and pasta boy we got on a trip to Italy. Here is a pic of our dvd cab, which is the same depth,and almost the same height and the glass is 2 1/2" wide as well... I would have the same side glass like this dvd cab with the oval top. I could have a wood panel behind the statuary so that the other stuff that I keep in the cabinet is not visable. this is a view from the front. Can you picture what I mean?

Late to the game but would echo the Waterlox idea. We have BB counters at the lake and have "experimented" with multiple finishes: 1) Our first try was satin urethane. Bulletproof, no maintenance, but even satin has the very glossy look of "plastic" and would seem to defeat the whole purpose of using reclaimed wood. Even on our BB counters it screams "fake" and I hated it. 2) Next, we went traditional with mineral oil. A huge PITA. Applied many many coats, laboriously worked them in, and the counter still stained at the first hint of wine, strawberries, grease etc. We also had some delamination which required repair, and I think that was in part due to the poor water repellency of the MO. I considered the beeswax/mineral oil approach but still felt it would be way too much trouble for less than ideal protection. I'd be even more concerned if we had used more "delicate" wood like yours as opposed to generic BB. 3) My "light bulb went off" moment. We had already done our floors in Waterlox and loved the look--totally natural wood with none of the plastic appearance of urethane. It's been four years and they are holding up great. Checked to confirm it was food safe and, having done so, sanded away and then used it on the counters. They look great and are totally stain repellent. Water beads up, unlike with MO. If you use the Satin finish after the initial coats of Sealer the final result will be quite matte. Waterlox is polymerized tung oil. It maintains many of the advantages of pure tung oil but to quote my definitive expert source (see below): "Polymerized tung and linseed oils dry faster, harder and are more durable than raw oils." Pure tung can take days to weeks to dry between coats. We didn't have that kind of time. And, on the subject of mineral oil: "Mineral oil is recommended for cutting boards. MO will not cure as it is a non-drying oil and will continually leach out with every washing, requiring periodic reapplication. It will also leave a mess on your countertops if you apply too much Ick! The problem with cutting boards is that you cut on them, so any type of film finish is pretty much out of the question." I do not cut directly on the BB counters. I'm careful to use cutting boards, mainly for sanitation purposes (I can throw them in the DW, as opposed to having to try and scrub down countertops after raw meat exposure, for example). Therefore a film-forming finish like tung makes sense for my purposes. BTW: I have been cautioned rightfully in the past to warn folks with nut allergies that there is at least a theoretical risk of reaction to tung oil based products including Waterlox. Though, as I said then, given the consumption of peanut butter in our household, anyone with a real allergy would anaphylax just walking into the kitchen. Here's my source: Incredibly detailed, extremely useful discussion by SteveRussel of oil finishes for wood