Ok, now I feel really bad....

When I posted this picture of my mantle the other day...

I honestly wasn't trying to convince any of you that I was in the process of some-sort of new-fangled decorating project.

I was just walking through the living room, saw the aluminum foil, and thought "Hey, how lazy weird is it that the aluminum foil is still covering my mantle?" And decided to take a picture and post it.

I was so ashamed of myself for the way I posted it, for a while I tried to think up some cool, hip reason for why I would have a mantle covered in aluminum foil....

A new, inexpensive way to do silver leafing?

The newest European decorating ideas for Valentine's Day?

Aliens?

In the end, I just thought it would be best for me to be HONEST (which I always try to be with all of you) and tell you the REAL reason why my mantle is so shiny.

Y'all remember my post about Snowmageddon 2011?  Well, hubby was called the Friday before the snow was to start on Sunday, and was told to pack enough clothes to be out of town for at least 5 days once the snow and ice started.  Ice storms and power lines do not mix well, so my husband's employer was planning for the worst.  We were all in a tizzy, worried about making sure we had everything we needed to survive for several days without electricity and without Marty being here.  I am pretty independent, but I really wasn't looking forward to the thought of being here in the dark without him here.

Anyway, one of our biggest concerns was keeping warm, especially since the forecast predicted several days of extremely cold temperatures after the snow and ice.  We normally heat with an electric heat pump, but are fortunate to have gas logs in the fireplace to use in case of a power outage.  However, we have found we have one BIG problem with our gas fireplace.....

The heat goes straight UP when it is on.

This was a HUGE problem before we had the mantle.  The very first time we were enjoying a romantic, late-night fire, I started hearing an occasional loud *popping* sound.  It took a few times, but we finally figured out it was our TELEVISION making that noise!

Our TV does NOT like our gas fireplace!  It gets WAAAAAY too hot, so we've basically not used it for the past three years.  We thought that once we got the rock and the mantle put up this past spring/summer, the heat wouldn't be an issue any longer.  However, instead of the television getting hot, the mantle takes the heat instead. We have metal flashing to put on the underside of the mantle to try to help deflect the heat, we just haven't gotten around to putting it on the mantle yet.

(Remember, this slacker mama married a slacker daddy....*sigh*)

Anyway, we were facing having to use the fireplace for several days, so we needed a way to deflect the heat from the mantle and the television.  I decided the cheapest and easiest solution was to cover it with aluminum foil.  It worked fantastic and literally took a minute to put on....

But obviously, it takes someone lazy like me, to wait FOURTEEN days before I took it back down.

So there it is....the real reason why I had aluminum foil on my mantle.  I am so sorry to disappoint all of you who were expecting some incredibly creative mantle decorating going on.

Forgive me?

Anyway, I do have a really good excuse for not having my mantle decorated for Valentine's day yet.

Marty and Jameson decided to work all weekend, and finally got the tile hearth installed!

OK, I will admit....at the time of the above picture, I was COMPLETELY freaking out!  There was so much grout on the tiles, everything was completely brown.  I kept saying...."Is there supposed to be that much grout put on those tiles?"  Marty assured me everything was fine....but for about an hour, I didn't believe him at all!

Here it looked a little better, but I still wasn't happy.

OK, after the final wipe down, I admit, it does look a lot better and as it dries, it looks better and better.

**whew**

I was REALLY worried there for a while!

Now, I can officially say that every bit of our floor is now covered!

Not too bad considering we've only lived here for three years....

I hope you all have a wonderful and fantastic week!

My first ever Mantle Party!

The Nester, over at The Nesting Place (you know, the blog that started my obsession with blogs) is hosting a Fall Mantle Decorating Party!

I am so excited because this year I actually have a mantle to decorate!  I've stared at that big open hole and that big ol' television long enough.  Now I have something pretty to look at!

I not thrilled with how the top of the mantle looks right now.  Trying to decorate around that big ol' television is tough!  I am hoping I can get some ideas through Nester's party.

 

One thing I do love, though, is the "FALL" swag!  It was so much fun to make (and cheap, too).  I've bought the scrapbook paper to make one for Jameson's room and the Dining room, too.

So, anyway, here is my first attempt at decorating my mantle.  I hope you like it!

The jars are filled with these super-cute scrapbook paper pumpkins that I made.  I found the instructions on a blog last week.  They are so simple to make!  They literally take about 5 minutes.  I will do a post on them soon! 

 The pine cones are part of a collection from Jameson.  Ever since we first moved in this house, every time he finds a pine cone, he brings them in to give to me.  It's his own special gift and there is one specific place he wants me to put them.  I hope he won't be upset I've moved them for a few weeks.

So there is my first ever fall mantle.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  Now head on over to the Nester's party and see how REAL decorators do their thing!

I am also linking to Hooked on Houses -Show Us How You Decorate!
And Chick on A Shoestring-Flaunt It Friday!

***I just had to change the spelling of "Mantel" to "Mantle".....According to most spellings, both are correct, but spelling it MANTEL was just bothering me...lol!***

I am the happiest wife in the world!

Because my sweet hubby used his summer vacation time to do THIS for me:

TAHHH DAHHHH!

He still has to remove the shims, clean the mortar up, and put down the tile for the floor, but the hard part is D-O-N-E!!

I can't tell you how excited we BOTH are!

Tomorrow, he starts on the kitchen:

The hole in our wall is at least half-way finished

Hubby has been working massive overtime for the past month, so progress has been S-L-O-W!  

Don't get me wrong, I am EXTREMELY thankful that he has a good job and his overtime is bringing in some much-needed moola, but DANG......

I want my house back!

We pray think all of the "bugs" have been worked out and the rest will be smooth sailing.

We spent 1/2 a day on Friday working on the mantle.

Here is a picture to show what problem we had...

Because our corbels were so thick, the mantle wasn't wide enough to cover them....so, we had to bump it out an extra few inches....causing a big gap.

Because of this gap, we had to cover the top of the mantle with another wider piece of wood.

Hubby's router is on the fritz, so we decided to cover the edge with molding instead of trying to round it out.

I think it looks pretty good....but final verdict will come when it's stained.

UGH, I don't even want to think about that!

But I have told hubby that if the stain gives us ANY problems....that baby is going to end up GLOSS WHITE!

I think this fireplace has caused us enough drama without freaking out over stain!

Praying that the fireplace is finished before our friends come in two weeks!

Wish us luck!

Fireplace remodel: End of day 2 1/2

This fireplace remodel is driving me crazy!

How do people remodel NECESSARY rooms (Like Kitchens, Bathrooms) and remain sane?

We are just adding rock around our fireplace, and I am about to loose my mind!

I swear, my living room looks like a rock quarry exploded!

There is mortar, rock, dust, sand everywhere!

Anyway, of course this remodel is taking about a million times longer than we thought it would. If anything could go wrong, it has....

The story of our life.

Today's drama centered around the fact the the gorgeous corbels that I bought to go with the mantle are too thick.....they stick out past the front of the mantle.

After going over 100 different scenarios, and spending an hour in Lowe's, we came up with a solution. We are hoping that our fix will work as we hoped!

Stay tuned to see if it does!

Because of hubby's work schedule, he can't do any rock work during the week, so progress has been limited to weekends.

So, here are the results at the end of day 2 1/2 (one full day yesterday and a partial day today....he has to work tonight, so today was cut short):

The mantle will stained (hopefully) to match our cabinets.  He just has the mantle and corbel temporarily up there to get good measurements for the supports and the rock.

The keystone and the arch took forever to complete, but I think it turned out fantastic!

We are praying that everything else from here on out will be smooth sailing.

But you know how that goes....lol!

The fireplace isn't the only thing getting a facelift around here!

The past couple of weeks I have been showing you the S-L-O-W progress of our fireplace remodel:

Here

Here

Here

and Here

But our fireplace isn't the only thing getting a makeover around here....

I finally took the plunge and had my hair cut and highlighted.....

For the first time in TWO years!

I mean, I occasionally color my hair at home, but it's been two years since I've had anything "professional" done.

Friday, hubby and Jameson were at home, planning some things for the fireplace, and Chelsea was with her Nana, so it seemed like a good time to have some "me time".

My "regular" stylist wasn't there, but fortunately, I knew one of the other stylists there.

I put my hair in his capable hands!

I was a little "shocked" by the outcome, but I am pleased with the result.

In case you don't remember, here is my "before":

(You may want to click on the picture to read the captions...lol)

And now my "after":

I'm a.....a.....a........

BLONDE!

It's much lighter than I've ever been, but I am loving it now.

Tyler knew what he was doing!

I may have also had a little work done on the other end, too.....

My sheets and socks and hubby's legs are VERY thankful!

Now, the only problem I have now is FIXING my hair every day!

TYLER, do you think you could just move in with me and style my hair every day?

Please?

End of day one

Well, here it is at 1:45 am, and hubby and I are getting ready to clean up and go to bed.

It's been a LOOOOONG day!

We were fortunate that Jameson let us *sleep-in until 9:00 this morning.

* meaning he comes in our room about 10 times and asks us if he can have a snack, have some milk, watch cartoons, play on the computer...but we don't actually have to get UP.

Once we got up and ate some breakfast, hubby went to work on the fireplace project.

The majority of the daylight hours were spent prepping the floor for the hearth tile.

However, we (Marty) didn't lay that tile because then he wouldn't be able to walk on it for a few days and he wasn't ending this day without some rock on that wall!

Here's the first globs of mortar going down.....

And now, the first rock is placed.....

***LAAAAAAAAA***

(That's the sound of the angels singing in Heaven...lol)

After a few hours, the first three rows were done....

Then after a few more hours, 2/3 of the legs were finished.

Now here is where Marty decided to call it a night....

We can officially say the "bottom" of the fireplace is now complete!

The pictures really don't do the rock justice.  The flash highlights all of the mortar joints that you cannot see in real life and we also still have all of the spacers and shims in place to hold the rock where it needs to be overnight.

Hopefully, from here until completion, it should be a much more simple process.....

Except for the arch and the keystone.....

But I'm not going to think about that for now....

I DO want to actually get some sleep tonight!

A little bit of progress....

It's the weekend, so there has been a tiny bit of progress in our fireplace remodel....

We've had the sand delivered.....

Jameson is super-excited to have a sand pile to play in....

As is the neighborhood's cats.

We've purchased the hearth materials.....

And we no longer have a big, gaping hole in our fireplace wall....

Notice that all the black around the fireplace is now gone?  I think it's going to look so much better!

It's supposed to be a warm, beautiful day, so I am hopeful that progress WILL be made today....

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Got the DST Blahs!

I don't know about you, but Daylight Savings Time (DST) really throws me for a loop!

First, we were almost late for Church....

Not because we forgot to change our clocks, but because we were just too tired to get up and moving.

Then, once we get home from Church, I took a nap....

Napping is something I never, ever do....

Unless I am sick or pregnant.

I have been sick, but am better now and I am definitely not pregnant....

Or at least I don't think I am.

Well, the reason I don't ever nap is because I usually feel horrible for the rest of the day.

Which I did.

Then, when it came time for bed, I was WIDE AWAKE!

I finally found the bed around 1:30 am, much to hubby's dismay.

I also had ZERO energy or motivation to do ANY housework.

Therefore, my laundry is taking over the house and the dirty dishes are multiplying like rabbits.

Oh, and as for the status of our fireplace remodel.....

Yup, looks just like it did on Friday.

This house will NEVER be finished, I am afraid.

Fortunately, it is Spring Break for my kids, so we were able to sleep in this morning, and I won't have to waste that hour-and-a-half in car rider line this week.

And my kids will have an entire week to get used to the time change.

Unfortunately, I am back to the grind tomorrow....but at least I got an extra day to try to get used to it.

So far, this morning I have managed to get the kitchen clean and get some of the laundry taken care of.....

And catch up on Facebook and Twitter....lol.

I'm not sure how I feel about DST......I'll let you know in about 6 months.

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How do you feel about DST?