The Mantle...

Ok, as most of you know we are going through this really big remodel. I say really big because 3 years ago we tried to remodel our kitchen on our own and its not done. So we are actually forking over the thousands of dollars to pay people to remodel our home for us. I will continue to blog about it all as it comes along.

This is a chipped tile on the edge that caused us to realize we needed a redo

OLD FIREPLACE

The first big thing we wanted done was our fireplace "mantle" redone. The owners before us had a tile/border/trim in an ugly shade of tan glued on to the tile fireplace border that came with the house when it was built in the 80s.

I love brick mantles! I think it has a lot to do with how much I love my mom's mantle. But we don't exactly have a ton of room in our home because of the huge windows on each side, OH and above our fireplace. So we thought a simple brick mantle that lined up with the teeny tiny ledge that is already there.

Well who do you call for a job like this? Google had zero answers. So I figured a handyman can do it. I found one that was close by and had good reviews. Sent an email and within a week the dialogue of getting estimates and scheduling and finding brick was upon us.

I had a vision. I knew exactly what I wanted my fireplace to look like. I LOVE the distressed red brick with the white fading in it. The old timey look. We have 4 brick stores on our side of Tucson and one used construction goods store. I went to all of these places looking for the exact brick I wanted. NO ONE sells it anymore. Its been discontinued. Sad day.

So we are now onto vision #2. Finding a dark red brick. Well, we went to The Brick Yard. The name alone sounds like it should have just what I want. NOPE. So we settled. And we had 3 days until our handyman was coming to get this done. After two days of looking over the brick sizing it and thinking about it, we realized they sold up 2 different sizes of brick.

So Joel went back the day of the installation and walked around looking for brick. He found 4 other kinds of brick and sent me pictures of each one. We settled on option 4. It was the darkest one they had that seemed to work for us.

Now you should note, if we didn't like the outcome of whatever brick we settled on, we planned on painting it.

Ok now time for the demolition and installation. We were penciled in a week early because I can't call and schedule our flooring (another post) until this is done because I wasn't sure when this will get done. And I am so ready for new flooring.

Well, the guys showed up an hour late (during nap time).  And thankfully my boys slept through most of it. But 4 hours later, the men were only done with the step. And our handyman kept leaving to go to other appointments (he was so over booked). 6 pm Friday night, they stopped and said they will be back at 7:30. Well 8 am they roll in and get to work. by 2 pm (nap time again) my house is a mess I but the mantle is done. I send them away and say come back Sunday to finish us. The mantle was a mess of mortar.

This is the mess they left me with

That was not my vision. So I spent all night Sat. scrubbing the step and getting as much cement off as I could. I made a difference but it was awful.

 

This is the after picture after scrubbing the cement away.

Then I go to dust the shelf of the mantle and noticed the end bricks are not staying attached. Email the handyman and told him there was more to be done. And that he needed to clean as much as he could. His partner in crime made the mess and left it. I was pretty upset about that and I think our handyman was too. Because on Sunday he showed up alone and stayed for 2 hours cleaning and repairing. However, I can't clean the top shelf until its completely dry. So the rest looks good, but the top is still cementy. And what masonry people use to clean brick is an acid that I am not comfortable using INSIDE my house and around my kids. So we are sticking to water and vinegar and scrubbing. Its a lot of work but so much safer and still does the trick.

The end result after scrubbing and fixing the broken pieces and every thing.

Well all that to say, We love the design and how that turned out. Joel and I were talking about the rest of the remodel and we realized we are probably going to paint it anyways to match the rest of the house. So it doesn't matter any way. Stay tuned!