We have some good news and some bad news.  I will start with the bad news.  The bad news is that we aren’t done installing the brick yet.  The good news is that I warned you back on the Time to make some decisions! post that Ronan and I don’t do well with timelines, so you are probably not that surprised or disappointed by the bad news.  If you feel like me reminding you that you shouldn’t be surprised by our slow progress doesn’t really count as “good news”, then I agree with you. Luckily, there were actually lots of good things that happened over the last few days.  Here is a rundown of things that went well and things that didn’t go so well.

The good news:

› We discovered that the nonfunctioning stub chimney that runs from our kitchen into our son’s playroom extended all the way through the playroom ceiling, through the attic, and up to the roof.  This was awesome because before we made the discovery we didn’t know whether the chimney extended very far into the attic, so we were fully expecting the brick removal to include making a huge mess in either the kitchen or the playroom.  However, finding all of the brick in the attic meant that we were Ronan was able to remove the bricks from the chimney without making a huge mess in one of the rooms that we are currently living in.

›  Ronan framed the bump out for the mantle, put up the drywall, and attached the mantle.  It completely changed the whole room and we love it! We also can’t believe we were living with lath walls for as long as we were.  I guess we should have started this blog a year ago.

› We decided to use a white mortar between the bricks to make it look older and more authentic.  We also like that the white mortar ties the brick area in with the white mantle nicely.  We think that the finished product is going to look awesome.

› We have always been slightly annoyed by the fact that the mantle was on the right side of the room instead of in the middle. Since we were reframing the entire mantle, it made sense for us to move the mantle and bump-out back into the center of the wall, so we did.  It looks and feels so much better where it is now! (We should probably add “symmetry” to our list of “Things that we like” on our The People and The House page.)

The not so good news:

›  The chimney in the attic is farrrrrr away from the dining room, as in as far as you can possibly get while still being inside of the house.  Taking the bricks from the farthest corner of the attic, down a tiny ladder into a bedroom, then down the stairs was not the easiest job, but thankfully Ronan’s father stopped by and helped for a little while.  As is usually the case when those sort of jobs pop up, I wasn’t so helpful was urgently needed to do a couple of extremely important jobs that couldn’t have possibly waited another second.  It’s so crazy how that happens!

› We cannot completely close up the area behind the stove because we need to run some plumbing in there and we are not quite ready to do that yet.  So, Ronan is going to complete the sides and the back of the brick in the upcoming days and then he will close up the top after the upstairs plumbing is installed.  That said, the brick will not look totally done until that step is complete.

Some neutral news:

›  We are not entirely sure about the color of the brick that we are putting in behind the stove.  I think it is throwing us off a bit because in our kitchen we see one piece of chimney every day and really like the color of it, so without really thinking about it, we assumed the brick that we were putting behind the stove would be the same color.  When we discovered the top of the chimney in the attic, we realized the brick up there was darker than the brick we see each day. That brick is old just like our kitchen brick, but it has been hidden away in the dark attic as opposed to being hit with lots of sunlight like the brick in our kitchen has. Our attic brick is kind of like our quiet, loner brick that has always kept to itself, whereas our kitchen brick is super social.  Anyway, the color is different than we pictured it being and we are interested in hearing what you all think of it once we finish it and put the pictures up.  During the brick vs. shiplap decision process, a few people suggested white-washing or distressing the brick a little bit, which makes me wonder if they saw this situation coming.  You readers really know what’s up.

Before:

Now:

That little pile next to the mantle is made up of some of the brick that will be going in behind the stove. It’s kind of cool that you can tell which side of the brick was facing the inside of the chimney and which side was facing out.

What’s next?

Now that this project will be wrapping up soon, we have another fun decision to make!  We need to decide what to do on either side of the bump-out.  Originally, we said we wanted to put in some low built-ins, but now we aren’t entirely convinced we want to keep it that simple. We might want to change our plan up a bit and add some more substantial cabinetry and shelving on either side.  Tell us what you would do on either side of the bump out and we just might use your idea as an option in our next poll : )

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