Refinished Fireplace

Back in 2004, I bought an electric fireplace off of Craig's List. It was in a newly remodeled home and the guy hated it. The builder made the mantle to fit around an old chimney stack. It was a beautiful mantle with lots of detail made out of solid oak. There was dental moulding and fluted molding. But like the guy who sold it, I hate new oak. It's so bright. And for some reason people love to put a gloss varnish on new oak so it's always ridiculously shiny.

Here's the Craig's List image:

I had to trim off the sides to put in my condo.

The new oak made the piece seem huge, so I stained it with blue wash stain. I claimed it took up too much visual space in that golden oak color.

And it was like that for 9 years. Then the other day, I looked at it and decided to remove the wash and put on some American Walnut stain, I like to think of it as an antique oak color since it's the color oak turns after 50 or so years. I have a ton of old oak in my house so I thought it was time to get it to look like all the other pieces in my house.

For $30, I bought some stripper, steel wool, steel brushes, gloves and stain and went to work.

Here's what it looks like in progress. Since the mantle and fireplace were grouted to the stand I made for it out of MDF, I decided to do the job in my house (all windows open of course). It would have been better to do it outside. Since the blue wash was a stain, it wasn't hard to get it off. And as a bonus, it left the wood a little grayish (which means it looked aged). And I didn't have to work so hard to get it all off, because I wasn't looking for bright new wood.

When I stained it blue, I thought I would always keep it that way because I knew the dental moulding would be hard to strip. And it was the hardest part of the whole job. But the steel brush made it much more manageable. I highly recommend the steel brush. It was a life saver for this job.

And here it is in it's new color.

I think it does take up more visual space in the wood tone, but now it matches all the old oak I have collected over the years and it's looks like it belongs.

Day 1 of the Remodel

So they got down all the tile and put in the new tub. They forgot to turn back on the hot water, but quickly came back out to fix that. Thank heavens, three mad neighbors are not what I need!

And my favorite part of today: I found an old coke bottle in the walls! The walls are still open from the plumbing today —tomorrow is the rebuild day — so, of course, I had to look around in them.

Here's a picture. Getting this shot was a challenge, but I had to do it.

I am constantly fascinated that contractors leave trash in the walls. Just leave it there. Yes, it becomes a find in 70 years, but it's still a little gross.

And to all those haters of selective coloring: I know selective coloring is considered passé, but I am doing it for a couple shots that I am going to hang in the bathroom when it's all done. It's a black and white bathroom, so I wanted black and white shots, but certain colors I thought were important. I don't know, sometimes, you have to do passé if it speaks to you artistically. Here's the other selective color image I want to hang in there, it's my old, broken soap dish. So if you are going to hate, do it in full force!!

Bathroom Remodel Starts Tomorrow

After 16 years of living with this old Parkfairfax bathroom (built in the 40s), I am finally remodeling. I have done little things to the bathroom like replace the light, paint, try to paint the tub, and replace the toilet and medicine cabinet. Everything else is original. Oh, except the shower converter, they installed that in 1970 when they converted these units from apartments to condos.

Here are the before pictures. You'll notice the wall with the window has the tile removed. I'm trying to save some tile for my neighbors who haven't remodeled and can't buy this tile anymore.

I'm keeping the toilet, sink and medicine cabinet. The sink is in great condition so there is no point in getting a new one. The toilet and medicine cabinet are new, so they stay. I have a plan to dress up the medicine cabinet. 

My bathroom is tiny, when you open the door it takes up half of the bathroom. It drives me nuts, so I'm getting rid of the door and putting in a door that will attach to the outside wall with barn door track. It's a normal door, not a barn door.

Goodbye, old bathroom. You have served me well. I'm impressed that you lasted over 70 years. That's quite an accomplishment.