It’s been about five weeks since my hand surgery, so I’m finally able to get back to a few small, light projects.  Sandi had her back surgery about a week and a half ago, so she’s still moving a little slow and hasn’t been able to help as much lately, but it’s okay…  it gives us a chance to take a bit of a break.  I promised awhile back that I’d get caught up here, so here’s that update:

Upstairs

We began putting down the wood flooring and decided to get our carpet ordered about the same time.  The upstairs was ready first, primarily due to a couple of issues with the fireplace, so we talked to the installer about breaking it into two separate trips.  Since he’s fairly local, mileage isn’t an issue, so they brought all the carpet on the first trip a couple of months ago and got to work on the bedroom and stairs.  The living room carpet is still rolled up, waiting for the second visit.  He laid out a big tarp on the driveway and got to work cutting everything.  I felt bad and offered to help, but he insisted on carrying several heavy rolls by himself.

As you may recall from an earlier post, we decided to remove all of the railings and reconfigure the upstairs a bit.  The biggest changes were the addition of a closet and a wall on the stairwell side.

 

The carpet installation took most of the day, but we really like the way it came out.  More importantly, it meant we could finally get our new bedroom set out of storage and finally sleep in a king sized bed again.

 

Fireplace

Like I said, there was a bit of an issue getting the carpet laid in the living room.  We knew the fireplace needed work, but honestly, we’ve been putting it off this whole time because, frankly, we just didn’t know what to do about it.  The front was covered in large, white(ish) tiles, but several of them were loose and a few were cracked and chipped.  The mantel was a bit too large for our taste, and the hearth needed to be wider to meet code.  Our biggest dilemma was what to do with the dark plywood extending all the way up to the ceiling.  We knew it needed to be changed, but I certainly wasn’t looking forward to being back on the ladder or setting up the scaffolding again.

The first step was stripping everything off.  Taking the wooden mantel apart wasn’t too difficult, though I sort of felt bad.  We didn’t care for it, but somebody went to a lot of trouble too build it.  Oh well.  The tile had to be chiseled off with an air hammer, which made a terrible, dusty mess, but it got everything down to the cinderblocks, so we had a clean slate to work from.

Several of the mortar joints needed to be filled and we added a few concrete blocks to extend the hearth.  We dug into our supply of pine shiplap that had been salvaged from various walls throughout the house and, after cutting, sanding, and staining them, put them up to cover that dark plywood.  It certainly lightens the room up, and we hope it ties in okay.  The best part is it didn’t cost anything, and it went up pretty easily.

We had ordered some stone veneer from Lowe’s, but things didn’t quite work out.  It would be nice if there was a way to accurately track orders that go through third party vendors, but there isn’t.  We were told the order was in, though it turns out it hadn’t even shipped yet.  The upside is we were able to cancel the order and instead, went to a local shop that has a huge selection of materials on site.  We got what we needed and got started putting it up the very next day.  It cuts easily with an angle grinder and goes up quickly with mortar.  We’re really pleased with how it came out.

We have a wood burning stove insert on order and it should be delivered and installed just after Thanksgiving.  We decided to put down tile in front of the main door so we won’t be coming into the house onto carpet with wet / snowy / muddy boots.  It looked logical to extend that tile across in front of the hearth to meet code for the non-combustible material in front of he fireplace.   Then, we just continued it straight across under the window so it didn’t look odd.  Plus, we can stack firewood there and cleaning up the bark, dirt, and wood splinters will be easier, without trashing the carpet.

Just in time, I suppose.  They’re calling for snow and colder temperatures this week.