Fireplace Restoration

We decided to redo the fireplace. The problem was the last owners had taken off the exterior and put up plywood painting it white. We were afraid to put a fire in the fireplace for fear of starting the house on fire as the wood wen right up to the edge of the fireplace opening. I removed the exterior to cut down on labor costs but he brick work was all done by a local professional, Dave Moyes, 01553-761-923. He was only contracted to do the lower half of the fireplace. The mantle is made from solid Ash. Accent lighting was placed in the ceiling and the chimney was serviced. To cut down on heat loss often associated with open fireplaces, we covered the front with fire hardened glass and started our first fire. It is great.

The start of the project.		The plywood starts to come off.
	It took about 3 hours to fully strip the fireplace.	The truck was to be there first thing in the morning on Tuesday.	It arrived about 11:00.
		That first day a lot of time was spend in preparing the footings.
The inside of the fireplace has issues and needs some repair.
	By day four, the fireplace outside is mainly done.	Now Dave starts the center base of the fireplace.

After about 3.5 days of work, it is really coming along.