Fireplace Remodel!

One last look at the before picture: 

Demo time!  We only had to demo the outside layer of brick on the hearth, the actual metal fire place insert and the mantel piece holders (official names I'm sure...ha!)  We used natural stone so we were able to stone right over the brick.  (Please note every time I use the pronoun "we" I mean Chris...I had very little to do with this project unless you count nursing a 2 1/2 month old!)   Let's not even talk about the dust this project stirred up!  And yes we are using the Dyson because our shop-vac went ker-plunk!  

Next up was the "scratch coat".  Chris had to nail up wire meshing and coat it in mortar. Then use a piece of wood with nails sticking out to "rough it up"!  Don't you just love my "formal wording".  I'm thinking of starting my own HGTV show!  

We bought 3 more bags of mortar during the process!  That rock is NOT coming down! :) 

 Then is was rock time!  Chris's college roommate's Dad (did you follow all that) owns a local masonry company and he lets us go to his building and hand pick our rock out.  He also only charges us what it costs him to get the rock here from TN...it's a pretty good set up! :) We set the rock out for a quick rinse off!  The stone looks darker when wet...

We tried to protect our floors the best we could...

We brought all the rock in to see what we were working with...

Gerald let Sam have his own bucket to "pick out rocks" with! We actually used some of his rock and he even found the places to use them!  He is very proud of his rock!   Can you tell which one is Sam's bucket!

 Don't let this picture fool you...Charley wasn't "into" working on the rock!

 
Slowly but surely over 3 weekends Chris laid the rock.  He could only lay about 3 feet at a time.  Lets talk about how awesome hammering rock was with a sleeping baby!  Max may have slept with his fan on high and two noise makers on during the hammering process!  Laying rock (especially when it's a one man show) is an extremely tedious process!  This is a natural dry stack (unlike manufactured stone that somewhat "fits" together) so he literally had to find rock that was close and hammer the edges to make it fit.  We like the "rugged" look so we didn't bother making them fit flush or filling in the small cracks.


You have to make sure the rock will sit on top of each other.  You use mortar on the back but you want to make sure it will sit on top without it first!  The smaller rocks (the super tiny ones) are "shim" rocks used to balance the rock.  The long rectangle rock is my favorite rock!

I feel like this could be a GMC comercial.  3 kids, carseats and all plus all our hearth rock!  This is inside Gerald's building.  You can see the huge machine used to cut the rock in the background!   It's quite interesting and our kids liked all the "fieldtrips"!

 
Laying the hearth rock...

The finished product!  Chris is going to build a new mantel and stain it the same color as the floor but we put our old one up just to give the look!  We still have to clean the rock again (look how dirty the hearth rock got when we grouted it..the hearth and where the rock meets the wall are the only place you have to grout with drystack!

 Please ignore the dirty floors to the right of the fireplace.  We hadn't scrubbed them good (yes on our hands and knees) yet!

 We love our fireplace!  Thanks Daddy for ALL your hard work!  YOU ROCK (yes, pun intended! :)) (I just read that sentenced to Chris in which he responded, "Oh my gosh Emily, I bet you were waiting all blog to say that!"...why yes I was!

A before and after: