Slow and careful progress..

When I get frustrated at the pace of things around here I have to pause and reflect on how far we have come from when we bought the place.  Photographs are useful.  We took so many on that 40 degree day in March when we had our home inspection.  Here is one of the fireplace that is in the "fireside room" the room that is right ouside of our dining room.  The chimney is not quite a central chimney but is in the "middle" of part of the house.  It currently is free floating which creates a small space into the living room and a larger space into the living room on the right hand side.  The place where the real estate agent is leaning is slated to become a closet, and the ugly insert has been removed.  The plaster and lath are off and the room is thankfully no longer red.  I will post more photos as I go along but this space has changed and even though the fireplace is s-l-o-w-l-y coming along it IS changing.

Cast iron insert for the parlor side fireplace!

Faced with the question of how to turn the old coal firebox in the parlor into a working fireplace, I decided (with Ben's rubber stamp) to go with an English Cast Iron insert.  I kept finding great ones on websites and when I would research price, they were all in Great Britain (that makes sense).  I finally found the one I wanted in the US and have ordered it.. can't wait to see it installed.

Progress on the work in progress

We have lived in our home for 2 1/2 years give or take and every day the 200 year old house reveals another side of itself to us.

I was inspired to start blogging because today was revelation day... what I suspected from the time I first went into the front room of the house is now visible... our second fireplace!

The mason pulled out a ton of old brick that was obscuring the firebox.. and dumped a ton of soot in the hosue but there, in front of us was a working, drafting firebox which was used for coal....  and a brick dated 1917 :)