Home Improvements ~ Our Fireplace Remodel So Far

In my previous post, I shared the good news that the ugly wall above the fireplace has been fixed. Yesterday the man we hired to do the job arrived and within a couple of hours or so, the wall where the gray brick fireplace used to be was patched, textured, and prepared for new paint.

Here are photos from yesterday. My husband is on the right in the photo below.

In my previous post, I also mentioned that the hearth looked so big in the photo I shared in that post. Here's a photo of the hearth from the side. It looks much smaller, doesn't it?

My husband will be painting the wall above the fireplace as well as the patch of ceiling where the fireplace once was.

Here are before and after photos of our fireplace project so far.

Before

Progress So Far

It will look even better once the walls and ceiling are painted and when the mantel is installed.

Next week the new carpet is scheduled for installation too. Yay!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Home Improvements ~ Fireplace And Entry Hall Tile

In my previous post, I told you that I would share photos of our entry hall and fireplace after they were grouted.

So, here they are.

For some reason, this photo makes the hearth tile look huge. It really isn't that big and doesn't really stick out as far as it seems. In fact, it's only about 16 inches deep.

Also, if you look closely, you may be able to tell that the hearth tile looks different than the fireplace surround tile. They are actually both the same tile, but we used the wall tile for the surround and the floor tile for the hearth. It would have been nicer in my opinion to have the floor tile continue down to the hearth, but it wouldn't be a good idea to use wall tile on the floor. Oh well.

Here's another photo of the fireplace. This one was taken at night with the light on.

See all of that ugly stuff on the wall above the fireplace? Well, that's all gone now. Today a guy we hired cleaned that all up and added texture to the wall. It's now ready for paint. Yay!

I'll share photos of how it looks now in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Home Improvements ~ Fireplace Tile Installation

The day after our tile contractor installed the tiles in our entry hall and fireplace hearth, he installed the tiles on our fireplace surround.

First he laid out the design of the tiles on the floor. He called me over to get my approval before installing them on the fireplace.

Here are some in-progress photos from the tile installation.

Tile installation complete.

The thinset used to install the tile had to dry overnight before the tile contractor could grout it. What a difference the tiles make! No more gray brick.

I'll share photos of the entry hall and fireplace after they were grouted in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Home Improvements ~ Hearth and Floor Tile Installation

Here are more photos from our home improvement tiling project. The tile has actually already been installed and grouted. Today I'm sharing more of the in-progress photos.

The hearth tile.

The entry hall tile.

The floor can look different at different times of the day and in different lighting situations. The same floor tile is in the entry hall and on the hearth.

Photo Taken at 1:16 PM - Door Open

Photo Taken at 1:16 PM - Door Open

Photo Taken at 1:16 PM - Door Open

Photo Taken at 1:16 PM - Door Open

Photo Taken at 1:50 PM - Door Open

Photo Taken at 3:02 PM - Door Closed

Photo Taken at 9:21 AM - Door Open

The day after the floor and hearth tiles were installed, the tile contractor installed the tiles on the fireplace. I'll share photos of that in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Home Improvements ~ Tile Removal Completed

In my previous post, I shared some photos from our tile removal project. Today I'm sharing three more pictures.

This first one shows the progress the tile contractor had made so far. The top rows of brick were removed. But he wasn't done yet.

This is what our fireplace looked like with all of the upper bricks removed.

This is our entry hall with all of the old tile removed.

As I'm sharing these photos with you, our tile contractor is tiling our fireplace in the other room. It looks beautiful! And the new tile has been installed in the entry hall and on the fireplace hearth. I'll share photos of how they look in future posts.

Thanks for stopping by!

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Home Improvements ~ Tile Removal

Things are moving along well with our flooring and fireplace projects. We have chosen our tile for the fireplace and entry hall.

We were considering a few options for the fireplace. Two of those options were (1) tile the whole thing floor to ceiling, or (2) tile up to the mantel shelf, remove the brick mantel, and put sheet rock on top of the fireplace above the mantel. Then texture and paint the sheet rock to match the walls.

We also plan on putting a pretty wood mantel on the newly tiled fireplace.

We talked with our tile contractor about our options. He actually said that we could remove the bricks above the existing brick mantel. He has a friend who will prepare the wall above the fireplace and get it ready for my husband to paint. So, that's the option we are going with! Yay!

We also decided to remove the fireplace hearth. Last Saturday morning, my husband rented a demolition hammer from Home Depot and tackled the hearth. He actually finished removing the hearth in about an hour.

And this is what it looked like afterwards.

On Monday, our tile contractor arrived to demo the top of the fireplace and the entry hall tile. We made sure to cover our couches and also taped off part of the house that would be most affected by the tile demo. I'm so glad we did!

I basically stayed on this side of the house while the tile demo took place. The entry hall is on the other side of this plastic tarp.

I did peak through and took a picture of the progress.

I'll share more pictures of the completed demo in an upcoming post.

Thanks for stopping by!

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Protecting Her Nest

Mommy Killdeer

Yesterday I took our car to the car dealership to have it serviced. It was going to take a while, so I walked over to the shopping center across the street while I was waiting. On my way back to the car dealership's service department, I passed by this pretty little Killdeer. She fluffed her feathers and protested loudly when I walked by. It turned out that she was protecting her nest. She had built her nest on the car dealership's property. The nest is by those orange cones in the photo below. The blue arrow is pointing to it.

The people at the car dealership must have put those orange cones around her nest to help protect it. So cool! Good job car dealership!

It may be difficult to see mommy Killdear's nest, so here's a zoomed in view.

Killdeer Eggs

Such beautiful speckled eggs!

Thanks for stopping by!

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved