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Good gracious.
Before I bought our new fireplace, I read some reviews which sounded rather like this:
"I'm a grandma and I put the whole thing together in 2 hours. I never do things like this, but it was easy."
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
On Friday I spent three hours and fifteen minutes just putting together the shelves of our new fireplace. Saturday, it took Tom and I 3-and-a-half hours (and one screw-wood-split plus a couple tiffs) to construct the fireplace. The front piece with the emblem had three drill holes which show above the firebox and Tom was all set to write to the company and complain.
That is, until he realized, afterward, that he'd installed that (most important) piece upside down.
Clearly, Tom and I are not called to put together furniture. But we did grow in patience toward each other's weaknesses, a bit more knowledgeable in construction and we do have a plan B for those holes: perhaps we'll place decorative screws or brads in them so they'll look like we meant to do that. :)
And too? As I told Tom, we can apply 'Amish Quilt Theory' to this. The Amish purposely leave one square unfinished/imperfect to remind them that only God is perfect. I like that.
But all the blood, sweat and tears aside, we love this long-awaited (like 30 years maybe?) fireplace.
And since I'm Queen of Finding The Easy Way, last week I told Tom, "Hey! Let's forget about all the complication involved with hiring someone to hang up the tv and find places for the black boxes. Instead, we can just scoot the entertainment center over and leave everything inside just as it is."
So that's what we did. Avoiding complication is what I do.
Maybe (maybe) someday we'll buy a mahogany entertainment center, but for now? We're happy. And sick of construction. Our tiny living room feels larger and we're finally prepared to stay warm in an emergency, well, when the cans of heating gel arrive.
And now if we can just keep the cats from jumping up on the entertainment center and the fireplace (grrr), all will continue to be well here at Hobbit Cottage, for--as I find with every house--the more I put myself into it, the more it feels like mine, like home, and better-loved.
When we pour ourselves into anything of value, ignoring that darn ol' apathetic spirit, we feel brighter, encouraged and hopeful.
Well, I do, anyway. :)
(I might do a light brown stencil above the painting.)
*****
Gah. At 3:50 a.m., someone pounded on our back door then ran off. (That's only the 2nd time it's happened in 3 years of living here. We can deal with that.)
After getting up and checking on things (and smiling that the cats looked rather freaked-out), I went back to bed, but hardly slept another moment. Can you say, "Sunday afternoon nap?"
*****
*****
“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
6 comments:
Your new fireplace sounds like a great and long awaited addition to your home. That does not sound pleasant spending all those hours installing it though.
It looks great, Debra! And I actually prefer non-matching woods. I like that "collected over time" look more than a matchy-matchy look. I wouldn't change a thing!
Hope you'll take a picture of how it looks lit once the gel arrives!
That looks great. Just in time for the snow to fly! We'll be there in a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving. Weird door knocking person going on there. Probably teenagers? Years ago when our daughter was in Junior High we felt a strong shudder go through the whole house. Went to the front door to look around and the door was actually cracked in the lower area where the design of the door (evidently) made it susceptible. Shortly after a kid at school mentioned it had been him just pranking. Kids. We lived with that door until a couple years ago. I knew his Mom....she would have been mortified if she'd known!
We have grown our patience with projects too. We consider it quite the triumph when all done and one says "And I never raised my voice," and the other says "And I didn't cry..." lol. It looks great!
Debra, the fireplace looks great--also like all your decorative touches. Makes me wish I could exchange my old woodburner for a more user-friendly fireplace. Congrats on another completed project!!
Terra--yeah, in a way it was hard putting it together, but it's definitely one of those things that was so worth the effort! :)
Deb--thank-you! And thanks, too, for what you said about the non-matching woods. Makes me a bit more patient in that area. :)
Bonnie--thanks! I know you'll have another really nice visit with your parents. Thanks for sharing your story, too! Sounds very typical, actually, and also, from our upstairs window I did see a couple teenagers on the street behind us, so yeah, I'm thinking it was just a teenage prank. :)
Terri--thank-you! And yes, Tom and I do work much better together than we did when we were first married. We've come a long way, but there's still a ways to go...heh...
Pam--thanks! It does feel great checking something else off our To Do List. There are many more things left, but most will have to wait until next year. Oh well. :)
Thanks, Everyone! Blessings, Debra
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