New Fireplace

After being down in Enterprise and talking with my sister, and doing a lot of blog stalking. My new passion, well it kind of always has been what I am really interested in, is decorating and home improvement. I have always really loved HGTV, and their shows like Designed to Sell. With buying our older home, we have lots of projects that we can do. We did a lot at first, and kind of got burned out a little. But there is so much more I want to do, and more things I am dreaming up. If only I had the money I want to do them all. But I have learned lots of little easy tips that don't take a lot of money and I can do them myself, and I don't have to wait for Ian to help me.
So here is my first little "project" that I talked Ian into letting me do from the before to the after, and a little in between.

Cleaning out the nasty firebox that hasn't been used for many many years.

Getting ready to spray paint the doors.
One of the reasons I wanted to do this is because some of these tiles were broken and coming up. When we went to take them off, we found another layer of tile, but they were more intact.
This was mostly my project, which was really hard for Ian :) But he did help me by taking up these tiles while I spray painted, and then with the cutting of the tile.
We had to smooth out the brick surface so it would be flat for the tile.


Then cut and lay the tile which was a first for us. I had a different idea of how we were going to lay out the tile, but Ian really wanted to lay it at a diagonal, which makes it look a lot cooler, but consequently harder cuts. It turned out beautiful I think.

I layed the mortar mostly by myself, Ian helped with the clean off. Again...really hard for him. Then I grouted and sealed it.
Nothing too fancy, but it just looks updated now. We are really happy with it.
So stay tuned, I have more projects in the works.......