ta-daaaaaaa!

Here it is, what we've (I've) all been waiting for: a honeycombless, brand spankin' new fireplace!! Brett and Chip did such a wonderful job demo-ing and rebuilding. The brick work turned out beautifully, and we can hardly wait to install our new wood-burning stove. Our house is going to be a little oven in no time. Just in time for summer. In addition to a new fireplace we have some sweet new built-in bookcases on each side of the fireplace. Hello, storage, how I love thee. We will soon have glass cabinet doors for the bookshelf sections, and drawers on the bottom for wood storage (Brett & Chip will be making those). It's funny how changing that one wall has changed the whole look and feel of our house. I'm just thrilled to have our house back in order, and be rid of perma-dust. Halle-freaking-lujah. Believe it or not, ripping out a brick fireplace creates quite the mess. Avoid if possible...just sayin'. Unless, of course, you have a 15-year old colony of bees residing within, then by all means, go hog wild.
And now onto the nursery...sigh.

Brickity-Brick

The bricking has begun, which I might be so bold to say goes considerably slower than tiling. Sigh. We are, nonetheless, taking steps toward completion, and perhaps toward getting our little house back in order. Saturday wasn't the best day, as it resulted in two frustrated guys, but Sunday proved to be more promising. Here's to more days of promise!

Reconstruction

Yesterday's progress was great, but at the end of the day I feared this project would be a never-ending one. I was wrong. Brett & Chip made great progress today! We're well on our way to having our little home back in working order...I think. Next comes the brick work. Stay tuned for next weekend's adventures.

Honey, I Ripped Out the Fireplace

The dreaded project of all projects began this weekend, thanks to Brett & Chip. What wonderful (and brave) men! The bees that I've posted about in the past have been exterminated, as of several months ago; however, the comb and many dead bees remained behind our brick fireplace. We had no idea what to expect. It was an adventure, to say the least. We are very hopeful that the extraction of the comb will prevent any future bee return visits. Fingers are crossed...tightly.

Here's how we began. A lovely white brick fireplace.




The lovely brick fireplace quickly became a not-so-lovely mess.


Within a couple hours all the brick was down and all the remaining comb was exposed. It was gross, if I may add my two cents, but it wasn't as bad as we were anticipating. I'll provide you with some more detailed shots to try and give you a better idea of what we were dealing with.

We had at least a wheelbarrow full of old comb. Honey, anyone?

Then came the removal of the firebox. This was much harder to remove than anticipated.


After a few hours, finally a breakthrough happened, and they successfully removed that beast.

This is what we were left with yesterday evening. It felt like we had taken 50 gigantic leaps backwards, being that we're well versed in the demolition zone. Our home that finally felt so cozy and complete is back to being a disaster zone. Oh, well. At least we got rid of the bees, right??

Garden of the Month

I wish we had prepared a speech. What an honor...

The Wall Continued

I am proud to say that the wall is completed! Fence posts are sunk, and fence building will commence this weekend, much to Gideon's dismay (he rather likes launching off of the wall into Russ and Sandy's yard).

After Brett & Chip sunk the fence posts, they began working on moving rock for another retaining wall of sorts. They built a little staircase from our bottom terrace to the bottom landing, as well. Our yard is slowly but surely beginning to look like something!

The Retaining Wall

The silence neither indicates boredom nor lack of projects, but laziness on my part. Oops! As per always, projects abound. Brett has been such a diligent and faithful laborer, and I've been his fairweathered friend. Thank goodness our neighbor, Russ, has been so willing to help, and as always, Chippy is ever-faithful to lend a hand.

The recent undertaking has been a pretty massive (60'L x 4'H) retaining wall between our house and our neighbor's. I had no idea the expense of building a wall. Gasp! Nonetheless, it had to be done, so we bit the bullet and began. We ended up using stackable block, meaning no cement and no rebar. Phew! We did have to dig a pretty substantial footing, and cut back into the bank, while also combating crazy roots from our humongous fir tree, mind you. I helped with that part and was sore for about 2 weeks. This whole project has reminded me again and again how proud I am to be married to such a Hulk. He is strong like bull. Serious.