What's old is new again

This isn't the "home project" I was so proudly talking about before. It turns out, no matter how nice the project, if the floors is dirty and the backpacks tossed all over the place, it doesn't photograph well. The living room will have to wait for the "pre party" clean-up tomorrow night.

Since I did finish cleaning the family/TV room last night, you get a picture of the funky sparkly-quartz fireplace with cast-in-place bi-level concrete hearth instead.

When we first moved in, I immediately started thinking about how we were going to deal with the strange, off-center fireplace with the water-damaged wood-storage "nook" on the left. Well... maybe I ought to show you a "before" so you can get the idea. Brace yourself....



Clearly, we were in the middle of moving in this picture. Alright, so it was actually taken 3 months after we moved in but who's counting...

The wood nook became storage for home theatre components, the TV was placed on-center for the room, and K built some storage for DVD's. We also opted for carpet here. I'm not a huge fan of carpet but when the budget is tight and the floors are ugly and cold (this room is in the lower level of the house), it does the trick!

I'm still trying to figure out how to clean the actual "brick" - we don't use the fireplace (it's all sealed up to stop the flow of icy cold air during the winter) after a stern warning from an inspector. It had, however, been used for years and there are soot marks to prove it.



It's funny stuff - white portland cement and chunks of that white quartzy rock that (perhaps) your grandma had covering the ground in her rose garden.

Any ideas to clean it? I'm bound and determined to love the stuff because it's just so weird. I originally thought about tiling over it or something but I think if I do ever decide to change it I'll end up demolishing the whole thing and starting over. That (*I shudder*) sounds like a lot of mess and work so, for now, I'm embracing the heck out of it.

Tomorrow: My youngest child, A, graduates from kindergarten. Prepare yourself for adorable pictures, ainless whimpering, bursts of pride at her clearly beyond-her-age wisdom, and the bubbling-up of some kind of maternal guilt. Stay tuned!