A Little More Snow

Just like many others across the midwest and the east coast, we got a bit of snow this weekend.  We had originally planned to cut a Christmas tree today but we canceled our plans so we could stay off the roads. The single digit temperatures also factored into our decision to cancel our trek to a tree farm to cut a Christmas tree today.

Staying home for the day allowed me to get some more work done on our fireplace project.  I spent some time staining our new maple and aspen paneling on the wall behind the fireplace. Then I managed to rip a bunch of 2x4's that I had sitting around from a previous renovation. I ripped the 2x4's down into 1.5"x1.5" which I intend to use for framing the fireplace structure.  

After all that ripping, I cut out a test architectural brace for the fireplace. This original design had a compound curve in it that is difficult to cut at the thickness of this test piece. Turns out I didn't like this design. I decided on a simpler design which will be much easier to cut and shape. This should save some time and it will fit our overall design better.

Time...  I am seriously short on time.  It will be a major miracle if my health holds up this week and allows me to finish this project in a reasonable amount of time.  If it does, I should be able to have the fireplace installed completely and finished within a week.  If I was healthy, I could have had this job done in about three days, including finishing and sealing.  If that was the case, I would have been finished with this project a week or more ago! I'll be very fortunate to get his project done within the week considering my health.  Compounding my health issues is the fact that I have an allergy to oil-based paints and solvents so today's staining only angers my mast cells even more.  Needless to say, after a day of staining the wall I am not feeling too well.

Anyway, the fireplace project is coming along inside the house while we had a bit of snow this weekend outside! Outside, it is looking more and more like Christmas but, inside... not so much... yet...