More about the Fireplace

I know, I know.  I just talked about the fireplace.  But, I have more to say.  See, the doors were bothering me.  Here’s what they looked like:

The gold.  The wood handles.  It was all bad.  Last weekend I attempted to take the doors off.  I got about 4 screws out and then got stuck.  Sean said he’d just taken a shower and wasn’t going to get dirty with soot and sweat by messing with the fireplace, so I had to wait.   Then, this weekend I took out 3 more screws and got stuck again.  I guess Sean felt bad for me because he came over and yanked the doors off. 

Then it looked like this:

The smoke-stained brick was driving me crazy.  It was hideous and so obvious now that the doors were gone.  So I got some white paint.  But, before I could start painting, I had to clean it.  It was a pain in the ass.  There was dishwashing liquid, salt, a scrub brush, a sponge, a bucket, water, a spilt bucket (yes, this really happened and it was full of dirty water.  I was pissed, and it was my fault) and several hours.  Finally, I was ready to paint.  And, I did this one all by myself (minus the door removal, I had some help with that). 

So I painted and painted and eventually got it exactly how I wanted.  But, it was still missing something.  I anticipated using candles in there, but I needed more than that.  Luckily, my mom bought me a candle centerpiece that I thought would be perfect in there.  Ready to see?

Much better.