Handy Sandy and the Fireplace Reno

Hello - Handy Sandy here. Today we are renovating the ugliest fireplace ever... Do you need a reminder of what it looks like?

There you go... It looks like stone but... it's just concrete pieces made to look like stone! And it's a pain in the bear bum to always haul firewood into the house and haul ashes out. That's right... it's not a "real" fireplace made out of brick with an ash pit. No, it's a zero-clearance fireplace - essentially a tin can. Ugh... they were popular back in the 80s...

 Anyhow... back to our reno... Today we are taking the faux stone down...

It's a bit dusty and messy... but I am here to supervise.

There we go... faux stone all down and now it's just a matter of pulling up the hearth...

And voila... bare fireplace...

What are we going to do? Well... it would be nice to have a gas fireplace but... I know this might be hard to believe... we don't have natural gas on our stretch of road. They'd have to run the gas main down about 100 metres (300 ft for my non-metric friends) and that would cost $$$$... there is always the option of propane but then we'd need a big honkin' tank out the side of the house and get that refilled and... bah...  so we are going electric...

First... the frame...

Then some concrete board - it's already looking better!

What do you think? Meh in the daylight but...

 It looks much better in the evening!

See... better... it has LED lights up top and a blower with heat as well... the flame effect is actually fairly good - not as bad as they were in the dark ages... hah! Get it... dark ages??

Anyhow...

We had saved some of the laminate floor from the foyer when that got redone last year, so we are just going to slap some of that down perpendicular to the living room floor, add transition strips and call it a day.

As for the surround... we're going stacked stone - the top one... stay tuned!