The old "livingroom" which will now be our dining room has always had a tacky fireplace in it. The mantle was made of crappy mismatched trim board, had 1/4" fake brick (yes, FAKE brick) facade and a gruesome glass and metal front.
We've been avoiding touching it for almost a year now.
But now that we're finishing up the furring in the new dining room, we decided to fur in the fireplace as well.
By this time, the mantle and the plaster were long gone. (The original picture is from before we bought the house. Love the carpet, no?) All that was left to do was to attach the 2x4's flat to the wall and basically encapsulate the fireplace.
I started by attaching two 2x4's together to make my corners and attached them to each side of the fire place.
Then I tore out was the metal grate. It loosened the fake bricks. So I pulled them all off. That took some of the plaster with it. So I kept going.
Eventually, the room was filled with dust, my cleavage filled with sand, and an hour later, I noticed this cool brick archway.So THAT'S what was under there all these years.
I'm gonna keep it.
4 comments:
That fireplace looks great! Excellent discovery.
I wanted to reply to your question about the joist supports. Honestly, I'm not sure that it is worth the effort. It is good for piece of mind if you feel that your joists are spanning too far, but didn't do much for the squeaking or deflection (not that we had much deflection) in our floor.
The main issue that I have is that the new metal x bracing should be nailed to the bottom of the joists and the top of the joists in a new pre-flooring installation. Because we already have flooring on top of the joists, we had to nail to the side of instead of the top. So I wonder how much these are really even doing.
Sorry to not be concise, I think it is just a judgment call on your end if you think you need them or not.
Wow! What a cool find. -Julia
Bunny, thanks for the reply. This suggests to me that we can do it if we have time, and if not, not.
My inclination is to hit the easiest, and bounciest joists first, and anything else that's really bouncy can get a 2x8 block shot to it.
I appreciate the feedback. One of the toughest things about this project is the flying blind part. When you don't know if something is imperative, useless, or a gamble.
Julia,
Soon, we're going to be at the really interesting (for you) phase. Less construction and more design. We're about done with paint and we've got some sexy exterior things coming. Next month we should be doing cabinetry and the sexy lighting.
DW is working on a massive Before/After montage.
Mark
OMG! That's awesome! Why in the hell would they cover that up?! Nevermind. It's not worth trying to get the logic of the PO. :-)
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