Wednesday 14 September 2011

A real fire! home sweet home!

One day we were standing in the room which was gong to be our living room....on the chimney breast was an ugly gas fire. We stared at it and there and then decided that a having a real wood burning stove would make our house really feel like a home! Ste was very excited and began digging into the chimneyy breast that very week!


Knocking out bricks and plaster to reveal blackened and crumbling internal bricks but a beautiful original arch.

To be honest I was pretty gutted that the bricks weren't in a great condition because Id set mt heart on going for a look like this:

A photo which the man in the fire shop had kindly given us of a previous job they'd done! I fell in love with this image and I would sometimes just fool myself (and nearly Ste) into thinking the bricks inside our chimney would be OK once cleaned up! ....But it finally settled in that they were simply, in a state of disrepair!

Then one day after much image searching on google, we came across thin brick veneer, which are like brick tiles! Very clever!


I was enthusing about it but Ste being more practical and level headed softly pointed out that even though they were tiles they were still too thick and on top of the bricks already there would stick out too much. To run more efficiently and provide a good circulation of heat the fire needs as much space around it as possible!

So goodbye bricks and hello smooth chimney breast!


Then came the decision of what to do with inside! So we decided to paint it grey! (Because it would loom all earthy and natural) I spent a whole day layering on the grey paint only a few days later to begin thinking mmmm I just really don't like that! Anyway, Ste told me Id done a great job and he really liked it.
Unbeknown to me, Ste didn't like it either and was just being nice because he didn't want to offend me! I'm glad we opened up on our real feelings one day and both agreed we wanted it lighter! phew!

So thats where we`re up to now!

 Update on the fire... 29th September

The date is booked! On the 6th October (Ste`s Birthday) We will have our Little Wenlock Wood burning stove fitted! How exciting! We have been preparing the interior of the fireplace, with the slate being fitted and sealed! 



We were deciding between quarry tiles or slate. In the end it took us about an hour to find this particular slate, slowly sifting through each pack because they were all so diverse - ranging from reds to yellows - the natural tones in the slate. In the end we were very happy with the pack we chose!

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