Simplistic Beauty Revealed

From the first time we visited our new house, we were excited about many things.  Among them were the two existing fireplaces.

These are the features of an old house that you just can’t beat.   There was one centered in the living room between two windows….

…and another in the master bedroom….

We loved the fact that they were there, but they were not our style.  Too formal.  Too stuffy.

We also felt that the one in master BR protruded too far into the room.

So we decided to dig in.

What we found was equal parts delightful and depressing.

We LOVED the old brick.

We DID NOT love the crazy, off centered, hot mess shape of it.

So, we had to dig a little further….

…which meant tearing up some flooring (of course).  But we finally dug deep enough to find a beauty in the rough.

And luckily we knew just the man to make our beauty shine.

And he did…  In a short few hours.

And he even gave our new friend an acid wash, that really made her shine…

Downstairs we originally had no intention of changing the overall look of the fireplace.  The only part we really weren’t crazy about was the mantel. It was a little ornate, and we prefer a more simplistic look.

Our plan was to carefully remove the original mantel and give it back to someone who did love it… the previous owner of the house (remember our house swap?).

In removing the mantel, we just couldn’t help but get a peek at what was behind the drywall.

Which led to the discovery of more cool old brick….

…which led us to tearing off all the walls around the brick….

…which led to us removing some brick that had been added to the firebox…

….which led us to a break for bloody mary’s (vodka and saws– great combination)…

…which led to another call to Pancho, the brick mason, who (along with his teenage sons that Courtney had in her class years before when she was a second grade teacher) polished up this beauty just like the one upstairs.

Thank you sir.  She’s a beauty now.  You are a master of your craft.

In the end, we wound up with fireplaces that are “us”.  Straight lined, casual, authentic.  Left in the raw, yet not unrefined.

Simple beauty.   Just took a little diggin’ to get there.