As our little photo journal here shows, the fireplace is finally getting clad in stone, after a rather messy demolition and slow-motion rebuild. After the other half (and a parental unit) rebuilt the frame and put backerboard on it, I chickened out (i.e. 'wised up') and decided to call a pro to do the actual stone work. Twelve vertical feet of slate is nothing to fool around with, and I didn't want to spend the rest of my years in this house looking at my own foolish mistakes.
One of the (few) good things about an economic downturn is that because many good, talented folks are looking for a little extra employment, it becomes more affordable for normal folks to hire the best at still-affordable rates. (At least, I'm hoping I hired the best.) We actually ran an ad on craigslist.org; after getting nearly 40 responses in a week (!!), I selected the most qualified-looking emails (going mainly by literacy) and asked them to come scope the project for a bid. Probably about 7 different individuals/companies came out and submitted bids. We ended up with someone who was right in the middle and seems to have the right experience and attitude, and may be able to do some other projects in the house in the long run if all goes well.
So far so good; they're one day and two courses into it, shown in the last photo above.
And we are seriously excited to finally have some slate on the wall!
Stay tuned.
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