After working on the fireplace for a year and a half it is finally finished. It was installed and ready to use on Christmas Eve. It was exciting as it is something that I have wanted since we moved into the house. We lit our first fire in it and it was worked really great. There hasn't been a fire in that fireplace for over 70 years. After a lot of hard work and dedication, I can definitely say it was one of the hardest projects that has been done with the house. There is a removable ash pan at the bottom so I don't have to scrape the ashes out, which helps prevent the ashes from getting all over the floor. The insert was painted with a high temperature spray paint. I decided to go with black as that is the color that looked the best against the tile. The glass is a special tempered glass that had to be ordered in. I had my husband cut out the Celtic triquetra out of metal to put over the glass. I wanted something unique.

The fireplace is almost complete a few more weeks and it will be ready to install. The mantel has been cut to fit and is ready to be stained. I decided to use pine for it, as it was one of the nicest woods that I looked at, plus it wasn't really expensive.

Since the wood was in good condition, I decided that I don't have to paint it beige before staining it. The wood was cut to fit the chimney and was sanded. After it was sanded, I wiped it down with a damp rag and let it dry for a couple of hours. After making sure that it was completely dry, I set up my buckets and got busy with staining. I used the Minwax brand in #215 Red Oak. Unfortunately, this stain did not have the polyurethane (varnish) mixed in with it, so I had to buy some. I only put one coat of stain on the wood, as the red oak went on pretty dark. After letting it dry for a couple of days, I used the polyurethane to seal the stain on the wood. I had to let that dry for a few days before I could hang it.