I just HAD to open my BIG, FAT mouth!

Well, as I told you on Monday, our rock for our fireplace/vent hood/foundation was delivered on Monday.  Because of various reasons (waiting on keystone, work, rain), we (Hubby) just starting playing around with the rock today.

He laid out several pieces so we could get a feel of how everything would look.

It looked good, but for some reason, we were having a hard time getting it to look like my "inspiration photo".

Well, then I had to go and open my big mouth and say, "Well, the reason we don't have as much room as in the inspiration photo is because the rock on that fireplace goes all the way down to the edges of the fireplace opening. We've got all this black metal that we are trying to work around."

Well, hubby comes up with an idea to fix it.

He first decides to try to just take the face off the firebox.....

After about an hour, unscrewing about 1000 screws, and jerking the thing to pieces, it didn't work.

 

The face is somehow permanently attached to the firebox.

PERFECT....GRRRRRR!

Then he makes the decision to just slide the entire box back by 1/2", so the concrete backer board will just sit flush over the face of the firebox.

Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, to do that entails removing ALL of the surrounding concrete backerboard, AND cutting away the studs that are holding the firebox in place.

So as of right now, this is what our fireplace wall looks like....

All I wanted was some rock on my wall......

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If you want to keep up with all the drama as it's happening....look over at the right-hand side of this page and read my Tweets....or better yet, click the link over there to follow me on Twitter!

It's sure to be an interesting few months weeks!

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Still going strong after a year.

 (Pictures from Gracie's grandmother, Lena)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Nothing like puppy love.

Is it wrong for a grown woman to be THIS excited about ROCK?

No, I don't me "Rock" as in "Rock and Roll", I mean "Rock" as in the kind of hard thing you find outside in the yard.

Three-and-a-half years ago, when we were planning this house, our plans ALWAYS centered on the use of rock.  Specifically, we wanted a stacked stone fireplace, foundation, and as an element above the vent hood in the kitchen.

We poured over photos, magazines, websites, and brochures; drove around new neighborhoods, and visited numerous vendors just looking for the "perfect" rock.

No matter how much we looked, we always came back to one type of stone....

El Dorado Bodega Bluffstone

We centered all of our color and design decisions around this particular stone.

There was one problem, however....

The price.

El Dorado is expensive.....very expensive....

And as we got to the end of the building process, and the end of our budget....

We just couldn't afford it.

There were other, less expensive brands out there, but Hubby was adamant that if we couldn't get exactly what we wanted, we would wait.

So here it is, two years later.....still no rock.

I've gotten pretty used to looking at my concrete backer board wall that holds our television and fireplace...

And gotten used to my concrete block foundation and steps....

And I've attempted to get used to the open frame above the vent hood....but it's just so darn UGLY!

(Hubby didn't want to put the concrete backer board up yet because he didn't want to risk getting grease residue on it.)

But after two years, I am ready to live in a FINISHED house!

(Actually after 22 years, I'm ready to live in a finished house..... Remember, "slacker mama" married a "slacker daddy"....)

I am also ready to have a mantel to decorate!

Well, this weekend, part of our dreams came true....

We were able to FINALLY order our rock!

Not only were we able to order rock, we were able to order El Dorado Bodega Bluffstone!

And the BEST part....it was ON SALE for CHEAPER than the "other" brands!

WOOO HOOO!

They delivered it this morning, and hubby and I are about to bust a gut because we are so excited!

 

 

We are also very fortunate that one of our friends just finished building a house and had eleven boxes of another brand of rock left over, and sold it to us for a really great price. 

THANKS MORGAN AND ADAM!

When we put the two brands side-by-side, they match perfectly!

 

We may have enough rock between the two, to finish the inside AND the outside of the house!

Marty is so raring to get started putting it up, he almost took a week of vacation....

But the keystone isn't in yet, so we were going to have to wait a few more days anyway.

However, it looks like hubby will be starting on Friday!

We know it's going to take a LONG time to get it finished, but any progress is better than no progress!

Hopefully, I will have some great finished pictures soon!