Monday Field Trip, The Fireplace

Inspiration for todays post came from my Monday field trip to meet the masons on our Craftsman style beach house...  aka the SGG project.  I had the Monday morning early call.   Susan can you come out and meet with the mason to confirm how you want the stones placed?  Nobody wants to make a mistake on this enormous fireplace, especially me.  In fact, there are three of them in this house but for today we're going to look at the great room, as it was the main focus of Mondays work.

The exterior is coming along nicely with the addition of the upper balcony rails.  Looks so good.  But as you can also see it's still spring in PEI, a mix of snow and mud covering the ground. 

On days like these "Special Gear" is required for on-site meetings.

That's Anita's foot with the very muddy boots and the black designer rubbers are mine.  I was very careful where I walked... that day.

Actually both pairs are mine and this is how the the ones she was wearing got so muddy... I am walking with my camera taking a picture as I inch my way through the muck.  This was one week before at another new construction job site.  Since Anita was with me Monday I had to lent her my extra pair.  On PEI you never know when you're going to need them. 

Obviously I wore the wrong shoes on this day a couple of years ago.  Since then I always have a pair of rubber boots in my trunk.  Yes ... us designers sure have glamourous jobs :)

As we turn the corner to go into the house we are first greeted by one of several very large boxes of cultured stone that will be applied to the fireplace.  The fireplace will be a mix of fieldstone and ledgestone.

The fireplace,as you can see this is no small job.  The stained mantlepiece is in place so the mason can apply the stone.  The piece is a solid wood beam from salvaged from another project.  It has been stained and looks amazingly perfect.

After much discussion about how the stones should be laid the mason got underway.  This is the first stone he applied at the base of the hearth.

And this is what the hearth looked  like as we left Monday afternoon.  Still looks messy but he actually got alot done as we did a walk through of the house. 

There's just something about a stone fireplace that exudes coastal charm.  Lets look at a few more stone fireplaces for inspiration.

 

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Susan