Here's How it all began....

March, 2008 It's a couple of weeks before my birthday, I walk in and find Ben staring at the fireplace. "This thing is so ugly, I think I can tear it out and we can slap up some nice tile. It'll be a piece of cake!" In a blink of an eye, he was back with an air hammer and began knocking out big chunks of rock and cement!

Hey great, I love doing projects with Ben, except one look and I know the thing I'll get to do is pick up and clean up. That's okay, I've been wanting to do this for at least 15 years. What sounded easy, wasn't. No surprise, whoever built our house wasn't concerned about doing a good job building the firebox, after all who would see it behind massive amounts of cement and big, fake, ugly rock?



Ben got the rock down and chipped at the brick until he got the front equal on both sides. Then we decided to splurge and put granite on it and on the ugly hearth. For my birthday gift Ben went out to the shop and built me the most awesome mantle. He finished and installed it the day before my birthday, I LOVE IT!