Let the project begin!

You think Mike and I would have learned out lesson from the renovating our last house and buy a new house, guess what we are doing it again! While vacationing in Atlanta it came to my attention that some family members were less than thrilled I haven't posted any house pictures, so here you go :)

When we first looked at the house we immediately focused on the focal point of the open family room/kitchen. The fireplace. this was such an eye soar to me. I don't know if its the gold, or the floor tile on the wall, or the fact that I had to stare at it every day while trying to relax. After about 2 weeks of living here I got annoyed with it one night and started ripping out the drywall.

When then drywalled. We debated for a while whether to spray paint the gold with high heat paint specifically for fireplaces but I was skeptical. However, I did not want to pay the 300.00 dollars for a new satin nickel insert. While at a regular trip to Lowe's Mike and Clay spot a clearance insert in Satin Nickel for 50 bucks. Sold. The next debate was the mantel, Mike and I both agreed we wanted a Mantel to hang our Christmas stockings on. While Mike would have love to build it, we thought it would be cool to find an old mantel, so to Craiglist I went (ps LOVE finding neat things on here). We found a local guy who was a "picker" and had an old Shed filled we neat stuff. We bought a mantel that was ripped out of a 100 year old house in Bryn Mawr, PA. After we stripped 5 coats of paint off it was stained, primer and painted. We love it!

 The granite was installed by a local Granite Company. It matches our new kitchen counter tops (more pics to follow once I finish the back splash). We still need some more decorations but are we are very pleased with how it turned out.

Cost of Renovation:  $782.00
Granite: 500
Fireplace: 220
Paint: 30
Wainscoting: 19.00
Stripper: 13.00 Citri-Strip. Seriously if you need to strip paint this is the best stuff ever. Worked like a charm and didn't smell bad.