Shockingly, staying up half the night catching up with your cousins and then waking up at 6am to drive home does NOT make it physically easier to expose a brick wall. However, I soldiered on for a good 3-4 hours, partially to help burn off what was probably 1,500 calories from wine alone consumed last night. Worth it, though. Ray and Juan Carlos' country house is a special treat. :-)
Today was pretty painstaking. I worked to get the right side of the wall completed all the way up to the ceiling, so that I could tackle what remained at a more advantageous angle (right to left and top to bottom) for my lack of arm strength. Moving left to right or from the bottom forces a lot of use of my left arm and my triceps, which continue to be relatively weak, despite my weekly body blast classes. I noticed more than ever how uneven the plaster is applied and I noticed that this was probably done to produce a smooth exterior surface on a wall that is far from flush. The brick bulges in several places. As a result, in some places, the plaster is over an inch thick. In others, just a skim coat is on there.
The next weekend I'm able to work on it, I should be able to finish removing the plaster. I need to finish taking my saw and cutting out the rest of the edges along the left wall and ceiling, and then I'll work right to left to finish those last pieces.
This weekend I also worked on picking the tile for my fireplace surround and securing a carpenter and tile person to complete the fireplace wall.
On the recommendation of my friend (and former boss), Allison, I went to the Earthstone Tile Works shop in South Philly. They were great! Tiffany and I looked through their samples, and I settled on a beautiful and colorful slate that I think meets all my criteria. My criteria were:
- Cannot clash with the exposed brick or the french doors or the wood paneling that will surround it
- Cannot severely limit my options for paint color in the room
- Should be beautiful enough to be a focal point but not clash with the other elements in the room... my goal was to have it work with the rest of the room and promote a cozy, loving environment
(Picture of the tile chosen is in the album for this weekend).
Tiffany recommended a carpenter and her husband, Jason, will (hopefully) install the tile. I reached out to both of them to stop by to provide me with estimates for their parts of the project. Nate (carpenter) is going to come by tomorrow afternoon. They are booking 3 months out at this point, so I won't have the completed fireplace and room as soon as I had hoped. Fortunately (or unfortunately), we will still have many weeks of cold weather that could use a fire post-November, so I'm sure I'll get plenty of good use of the fireplace this winter after the whole project is complete.
I've also been researching and trying wood delivery options, so I'm prepared for that process, when everything is ready.
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