The living room fireplace was an 1930s eyesore in brick, painted black. Yesterday our builders went to work on it and now we have a lovely big hole where we hope a gas fire will go, probably with a more traditional surround. The plate rail was big and bulky and at the wrong height for a picture rail, so that’s gone too. When all is made good the proportions will be so much better.
Since the chimney is defunct we’re hoping our heating engineer can install a flame-effect gas fire with a balanced flue, to form a lovely focal point in what will be our ‘snug’ living room. But we’re moving in in just a week, so we’ll have to learn to love the unfinished look for a while. We also need the electrics seeing to, so I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to decorate for a while.
Meanwhile the sash windows are being renovated this week – it’s a big job but we’re hoping they’ll be finished by end of Thursday, before the Bank Holiday weekend. Since we’re moving in the following Tuesday – ack!
[…] inherited a rather ugly and non-original fireplace in the living room, which we had removed even before we’d moved in. We then dragged our feet a bit, mainly for reasons of finance. We couldn’t have a real fire […]