We are SO close to being done with the fireplace! This week (week 5 of the One Room Challenge) Parker did the crown, the mantel, the rest of the inner molding, and bricked the hearth on the great-room side. He also filled all of the nail holes and sanded. The only thing left to do is the mortar on that hearth, caulk, and paint. We plan to hire out the caulk and paint. The plan was for that to happen before the floors, but it is looking like we will switch that up. The last painter to give us a quote said that the mortar needs to dry for at least 3 weeks or the paint won’t take to the mortar. Good to know!!

So the plan is for Parker to finish up the mortar tomorrow (Sunday). He also plans to demo the bathroom tomorrow. This week he will tile the bathroom floor, and next week he will lay the wood floors!!!! He plans to take off a few days to do that. THEN we will be about ready for the paint. And guess what, we STILL won’t be done. The final step will be to put the trim back. We will actually do door casings first and then the baseboards. Luckily, we can move back into the main living area before that is done, and we can take our time with it. Parker is exhausted. This has been more than we anticipated, as I said before. Not only that, but he has a FULL ON man cold ;). He has a cough that won’t quit, which means he hasn’t really been sleeping. Then he works all day and comes home to work on the house. I also started back to work on Friday. So, the quicker this gets done, the better.

Here are the pictures from this week. I can’t wait to show you our progress on the bathroom for week 6 next week. Of course, we won’t be totally done with our project, but we should still have some great before and afters for next week. And I hope you will stop back by late November for our mostly completed project! Even though we are tired of our living situation, I would only change a few MINOR things. I think our results are going to make it all worth it in the end.

So what do you think of the fireplace?! It really adds so much interest to this room. A friend said it makes the room look smaller, and we feel the same. But NOT in a bad way! This room always felt like a giant hole. I feel like this brings the ceiling down a bit and makes the room feel so much more special than it did before. I can’t even imagine what this will all look like once the floors are done! If you want to see where we started and how we have progressed, check out the other weeks: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4.

Jalene