Removing the fireplace

The house that we bought came with a fireplace. Now to those of you who live in Utah or Oklahoma that might sound lovely. In Arizona, not so much. One, it's too hot 360 days a year to ever think of using it. Two, the other four days we are under high-pollution warnings and it's illegal to burn anything in the fireplace. So having a fireplace in the valley is about as useful as . . . well, as having a matchstick in hell.

The ONLY design element that Gary cared anything about during this process was removing the fireplace.  Seriously, if he had it his way, the fireplace project would have been the only one he undertook.  Everything else you will be reading about here were my ideas, inspired by pinterest and DIY blogs that Gary had to be cajoled, bribed, threatened, and pleaded with to complete. (And I must add that he has done a more beautiful job than even I thought was possible, and I'm pretty optimistic.)

Here is what the fireplace/library room looked like when we moved in (the fireplace is on the right-hand side of the room):

Next to the fireplace is an ugly french door. And notice how there is tile in half the room and carpet in the other? We fixed that too.  Here is a better picture of just the fireplace. It's not horrible--It's just not the right color (our colors are gray, cream, mustard yellow, and cherry red). And it has an old-fashioned oak mantle.

 Time to demo!! In this picture you can see how Gary already broke up all the tile. The carpet is ripped up and all the bricks are broken up onto it.

 And this is what that whole thing looked like on the floor of my new house (AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!) It's right about this picture when I thought, I cannot WATCH  THIS!!

 Fiberglass insulation falling out, mortar all over the walls, oh and a HUMUNGOUS HOLE in my wall!

 This is what the other side of the room looked like--we were scraping the mortar off the cement floor--a long and tedious job. And this is also a tiny peek at the "before"kitchen. (And a glimpse at the unwidened doorway to the entryway and the fugly pink wall.)

 Here is all the brick and cement block cleared away, the carpet cleared out, and the cement floor smoothed over:

 Still looks like a gaping cavity. Once we got the brick removed there was old laminate flooring stuck in front of the fireplace (you can see a black rectangle in front of the fireplace in this picture.) So the fireplace was a retro-fit, not original to the house. I felt a little bit more comfortable demolishing it knowing that.

 And then Gary got insulation (lots of it) and drywall and walled it up:

 If you look closely in this picture you can see that the popcorn ceiling has been removed and the walls painted a light gray. No more fireplace, but still an ugly wall and plain cement floors:

 Oh, ho, what's this? What could those strange red rolls on the ground be? Why it's underlayment for the wood floors you say? (and seriously, Gary when are you going to replace those fugly french doors with my brand new pretty white one sitting in the garage??)

 Bekkie flew in from Utah (thanks, Bekkie!) to help me lay the flooring. We knocked it out in one weekend (we rock!) Now there is pretty dark wood where the fireplace used to be and you can't tell it was ever there:

No fireplace next to the yucky french door--and my, my what a pretty kitchen I can see a glimpse of! Now if only the french door were gone and the baseboard in this room were finished...



BEFORE





AFTER

 Crazy, huh? Gary really is a wizard. I am glad he insisted on doing it. The room looks much better without it hanging out in there. Wait til you see what I have up my sleeve to decorate this room!