Fireplace, with attitude

Here is our hard-won stone on the wall. It happens to be near a fireplace. Odd. Anyway, it's good fireproofing . We collected the stone from the same quarry we used for the exterior, but we chose stone that was thinner and more uniform, for a slightly more refined look. It still is kinda rustic, but that's OK. Oh, we "only" got about 1500 lbs this time. It cost $30, not counting our time and gasoline.


And for scale, here's Lisa in front of the new fireplace. There's the attitude ;). We decided to forgo a mantel, because we will have built-in shelves on either side. Plus, due to current code requirements, a wood mantel would have to be 5 feet above the fireplace. Maybe that's to keep those highly flammable Christmas stockings away from the fire....but that height would not be very convenient for Lisa.

Note:
We got the rock on Monday, unloaded it, washed it, and sorted it into piles on the back patio (then went home and collapsed). By the end of Tuesday, a lot of it was up around the fireplace. But do the math -- 1500 lbs *4 (the number of times we moved each stone).....6000 pounds, or 3 tonnes worth of work.

These photos were taken by our contractor with his cell phone.