Fireplace Renovation: Part 8 – Fixing the Brick
Now that the hearth is done, we still have to address the missing brick in the fireplace. We had a couple of people come and look at what could be…
August 2014
Fireplace Renovation: Part 7 – Finishing the Hearth
On Sunday we (mostly) successfully poured our concrete hearth. It was quite the feat – both in mind and body. Here’s what it looked like when all was said and…
Fireplace Renovation: Part 6 – Pouring a Concrete Hearth
Our mold was ready and we were excited. The day we were working towards was finally here! Today we mixed and poured our concrete. Prep To prep the area, we…
Fireplace Renovation: Part 5 – Building a Concrete Hearth Mold
Alex’s mom is visiting this weekend, but we stole a few hours for ourselves and made some serious progress. In the couple of hours we had before dinner on Saturday,…
Fireplace Renovation: Part 4 – Fixing the Backerboard
This week we installed the backerboard and I had a bit of trouble with the cement grout. But, with that in the past, we were ready to build a mold…
Fireplace Renovation: Part 3 – Installing Backerboard
Just when we think we’ve got it all figured out, we realized that we haven’t. Our grand plan was to patch the fireplace and pour the concrete (for our hearth)…
Fireplace Renovation: Part 2 – Preparing the Floor
We’ve been stalled on our reno work for a while because we’ve been trying to figure out what to do next. Our concrete hearth idea is complicated for newbies, and…
Replacing Hardwood: Part 4 – Leveling the Floor
I feel like I’ve read every article and seen every video on installing hardwood flooring. The most common advice I see if that the finished floor is only as good…
Carless and Renovating
Alex and I are both urban planners (by training, anyways), and we love to hate on the irresponsible suburbanization of North American cities, especially with regard to how car-dependent we’ve…