Sunday, December 19, 2010

A Home Improvement Project

Tonight I did a quick and free home improvement project. All by myself. If you're like me, you just might be in love with your fireplace. My gas bill last month was kinda high - probably because we ran the fireplace pretty much 24/7. But, it was totally worth it. (-:

The cool thing about this project is that it was free. I have lots of things I'd like to do - ideas swirling around in my head, but I don't have the funds... or, I should say, we're using the funds to pay off student loans! But one day....

Anyway, you know how a lot of fireplaces have those gold door things? Nothing against the gold door things, but I was going for a little more modern look. Here's the picture of what I'm talking about. You could call this the "before" picture:


And here's a before picture with the doors open:


Not bad at all, but I thought we could update it a touch. So, I got out my trusty head lamp, my purple tool box, and an old metal wrench (I think that's what it's called), and I got to work. I shimmied up into the fireplace and started unscrewing things. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but that made it more interesting. (-:

Finally, the gold door came loose and voila! We pulled it off, took out some insulation stuff, cleaned it up a bit, and it looks great! Here's the after pic:


Pretty cool, huh? It's kinda hard to tell in the picture, but it's a lot more open looking, and the gold is gone. (-: It's looks kinda rustic/modern. Very cool.

And, to prove that I did the work, here's I am, with soot on my hands, sporting the head lamp, and workin' the tools:


So, do you have any cheap home improvement projects?

~Kathryn

4 comments:

  1. Looks REALLY good! I hope I have a fireplace someday! You should post more pics of your house!

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  2. Good job, Kathryn!! It looks great!!! If you ever want to put the old cover back on, they sell a special black spray paint that adheres to metal and is heat resistant. :)

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  3. 100% improvement!!! Love it! What a great idea for a free update, and yes, I love my fireplace - it's on right now actually. Except we have the real thing (wood) which means mulch and dirt all over my floors until spring. But as you said of your high gas bill...it's SO worth it!

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