We have been so extremely blessed to be able to live in this house. November 24th will mark one year here in our new home. We can’t believe it’s almost been a year already, but we are so, so thankful! During the past year we had a baby, worked full time (Steven), has been in school (Steven), served in the Army Reserves (Steven), and completed 5 patterns (Joy) this last year, we haven’t stopped making our house a home. We have used any little spare moments (and late nights) that we could squeeze in.. mainly to repaint and redecorate to bring our style. We have enjoyed every moment! Though I haven’t had the time to blog about everything yet, except my sewing room re-do, I’ll start sharing more of our fun soon.
When I painted this main part of the house in August I had a huge mishap. For the first time EVER in my vast history of re-painting and making over our homes (we’ve moved 6 times in 10 years), I spilled paint. Not just a little paint, mind you…I spilled HALF A GALLON of paint! I found myself up on a ladder, painting on little sleep, and not thinking too clearly. I left the paint can on top of the ladder and got down to get something. I then moved the ladder. Yep, you fill in the rest. It was quite a panicked moment! In a literal instant, paint was dripping down my arms, all over the wood floor, our furniture…and my kids just awoke from nap time. Ahhhh! The electric fireplace got the brunt of the mess, and I quickly whisked it outside and doused it off with a hose. I still have yet to finish cleaning it up 2 months later. I called my mom for reinforcement with my kids, while I used a credit card to scrape the paint off of the floor. It took me 3 hours. Oh yeah.
And that’s my story. But, back to the real reason I wrote this….
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So, what to do with this awesome space??!! Blueprint wise, this space is designed for a formal dining room. It’s right inside the front entrance and near the kitchen. But, since we moved here, we’ve envisioned another plan for this space.
We really got attached to the fireplace in our last home and felt it created such a cozy ambiance to our living room, that after moving here, we thought about wanting another one.
And…my amazing husband ended up building a fireplace in just a few hours about two weeks ago!
He came up with a few days off (which is amazing!) from work, school, and the Army and declared on a Tuesday that he was going to “build us a fireplace”! That afternoon he did some research, found plans, and reworked the design to fit our space. Wednesday he headed to Lowe’s to buy wood for it at 1pm, and we had a built fireplace mantle by 7pm! He’s really amazing that way!
Here he was working out a final layout for the fireplace front in our basement.
He built it in two sections, quite similar to the original design by the Mann family which we loved, but changed some of the dimensions and math to fit around our electric fireplace. He brought it up in two pieces and finished assembling it, using wood filler to cover nail holes, and priming it.
He did it all. He let me put the finishing coats of white on it though, and when I came home from trick or treating last Friday, he had the space all cleaned up, paint and tools put away, and set up so special!
Now I think there has been talk about extending that fireplace to include a faux chimney….
