Tara's Birthday Celebration

It's always tough to figure out the perfect celebration for Tara's birthday.  Even though she is quite the social butterfly, it never seems to translate into wanting to have a big party or event at the house for her birthday.  We usually end up going out for a nice family dinner and then, on this occasion, have a dessert with some birthday candles over some nice teacher grading work!  Wherever the place, we are thankful to celebrate another year for Tara!  Happy 46th birthday!

Final Touches!

A few days later and it was finally time for the stonework!  These guys came in with a truck full of the stone that we had picked out and hand cut all of the pieces.  They slowly worked from bottom to top to lay it all in.

A few hours later they were almost done, and it we were seeing this thing come together in its final form.

After the cleanup this is what it looked like.  Some of the grout and stone was still drying a bit so the colors were still coming out in the stone.

Later that night, we gathered for the first movie night in front of the fire.  Overall, we couldn't be happier with how it looks.  Tara was so happy that we could finally enjoy the glow of a warm fire for all sorts of activities.  There were a few minor things along the way that we might have scrutinized more or changed, but these pictures make it all feel a bit better.

 This is a last picture from a different angle.  Happy family movie night!

Almost Done with the Fireplace!

After a few more visits from the contractors, our fireplace was really starting to take shape.  You can see above that the fireplace itself has now been framed in with this boarding and the mantle has been installed.  The electrical and gas work was all completed and really all that remained was the stonework.

This is a picture from a bit farther away in the room just to give some better perspective.  It will definitely take some getting used to as we have spent the past almost 20 years with nothing on that wall.  We are excited for the progress, however.

Date Night!

Tara had a great idea for a date night and took us out for some Axe Throwing!  Apparently, there is this little place in a strip mall just down the road from us a few miles.  It seemed like it could be a fairly poppin' place, but we walked in, and we were the only people in the whole place.  It had a little bar area and then about six to seven lanes to throw axes in.  We took a 15-20 minute lesson from the guy that was working then and then we were turned loose for an hour or so.

After a bit we started to get the hang of it, but it wasn't easy for sure.  The funniest part was the worker guy kept coming back to us to try to give us tips.  He wasn't quite getting the message that we were just there for some fun and were not trying to become professional competitors.  Anyways, great idea for something different to try for a date night!

More Fireplace Work

The work continued throughout the week as we had a series of contractors coming in.  After the framing had been completed, they cut a hole through the side wall of the house to vent the fireplace as we weren't putting in a real full chimney that went all the way up.

The vent was sealed from both sides and the gas fireplace was set up in place for the stone work to begin.

After the gas lines were extended, we also installed this new (to us at least) gas stove from Tara's brother, Zach and got rid of the old electric stove that had previously been there.  This was one of the best parts of the project for me as I really enjoy cooking, and this makes me feel like I have so much more control of the temperatures being used.

Fireplace Work

When we first bought our house almost 20 years ago, we always envisioned it being a five-year house and we certainly didn't realize all of the things we should have considered when buying it.  Looking back, things like a master bathroom that had two sinks or some larger closet space might have been worth considering.  However, a fireplace was really the one thing that Tara had always wanted, and we couldn't believe we ended up without one.  That was all about to change as we kicked off our latest house project to add a gas fireplace to our living room.  The initial measurements were taken, and they started framing out the new addition.

This is what the final framing looked like that would be the foundation for the stonework.  Additionally, we were having gas lines extended from the furnace to this area, as well as to the kitchen for a gas stove.  The project was supposed to take a few weeks from start to finish and we were super excited to see it start to take shape.