The difference a $4 can of spray paint can make

I was surprised to see the spray paint I needed for the fireplace at Walmart. It's a $4 can of Rustoleum high heat black paint. Skipping right to the good stuff...

 I did a ton of prep because I didn't know how much over-spray I was going to have. At first I was just going to paint the gold but then decided to just go for the whole thing so it would all match.

Behind the scenes... this mask works magically. Seriously once I have it on right I can't even smell fumes.

Fireplace gets chopped

Here is Cameron's favorite part of our house. The den area, particularly the fireplace. Above is a pre- move in picture. Ok so I can't figure out if it's just because I've learned about design or what but the fact that it's not balanced really, really bothers me.

Cam and I discussed adding another bookcase to the other side to help balance things out. That made the list and is definitely happening sometime. The other issue I was having was that the stone hearth extended- again- only on one side. We talked about adding stone under the other bookcase we would add. But the problem with that is the existing stone is ridiculously heavy (there is only wood subfloor and beams underneath) and we were worried any more stone on that floor would cause some serious issues. We finally after lots more talking agreed that taking off the stone in front of the exsisting bookcase would be best.

A friend gave us a name of a guy who works with stone and he chipped out the stone for us. He also put new stone the other side that didn't exist before.

Ahh, a bit better right?... there are so many things still to do in here but the goals to get done soon are:

Try to update the fireplace insert by painting the shiny gold
Scraping off the popcorn ceiling and painting
Painting the existing bookshelf and adding another on the opposite side.
Ripping out the nasty pink carpet and adding a wood floor.

Oh and under the bookcase we hoped it would be more shelving (too good to be true). We found it was a piece of plywood and we are still debating about what to do there. We have have a few ideas but nothing set in stone yet.