You guys know things have been a bit errrr rocky through this whole building process. Most of the time our hands have been tied and there hasn't been much we could do to speed up the process. Well we decided to take the whole fireplace into our own hands.
Progress pic:
Do you remember how we had to take down our chunky old oak mantle and the hubs made a new one?
Well we also got tired of receiving no direction on what we needed to do to get the hearth done so hubs decided to whip up something.
We played around with some drawings and came up with this which repeats the pattern in our 3 panel doors throughout the house.
We had picked out a stone slab for the hearth but again didn't feel like waiting for things to happen so we decided to give the whole concrete pouring thing a try again. After all we made a concrete countertop 9 years ago in our first bath reno...surely we could make it work?
Sadly I don't have a great tutorial for either of these because if I'm not present to snap pics it ain't gonna happen;) (My guy gets to take all of his project making to his parents house these days because we don't have room in our current rental to work and get messy) I was lucky that I texted him and reminded him to snap a few progress pics for me.
He got the hearth in place and realized it was "off a little" so on another day he had to take it apart and do some adjusting.
Then he and his dad got the concrete top on! Love it!
Upon further investigation we realized something may have gone wrong with our concrete pour. It may not have cured just right because it's a bit more brittle than it should be. So one day while staining the master bathroom cabinets(yes he is doing that too;) hubs decided to put a wax coat on the concrete to seal and strengthen it. He then started adding polyurethane and after several coats that got soaked up really quickly it finally seems a little stronger.
I'm a little sad that it has since lost the gray tone and taken on more of a brown because I didn't want it to match the floor but we have both just decided to go with it for now and it we need to try again we will at a later date.
That't one of the nice things about seeing your house go up from the start. We are even less afraid of diving into home reno projects now that we now exactly what we are dealing with. Lord knows we don't want to renovate though...Just want to move in!!
Soon...Actually we are already taking loads over starting this week because we have to be out of our rental in 2 weeks:/ Eeek..Mind you we have now power, no water, no septic system. We are going to make it work either way!
Cross your fingers we are suppose to be getting countertops today! This will be the third time we were suppose to be having them installed so we need toes crossed too.
I'll of course post pics on the facebook page if it actually happens!
3 comments:
Hubby's got mad skillz! You're a brave woman. Can't believe you're taking stuff over without major hook ups in place. Praying it's livable by the time you're there full time, friend.
The hearth and mantle both look beautiful! Great Job!! I was telling James at lunch today all about your contractor MISadventures. He just kept shaking his head and saying, "Poor Jay." LOL! His pet peeve is paid 'professionals' not working to his standards. Oy!
The hearth looks really good and the way you are tying the panelling in to the doors will look really put together. I have been following your blog and watching the progress of your house. It seems like it has been a very trying process but once you get there, hopefully all the troubles you had will be a distant memory!
Post a Comment