Back at the gym this morning for my leg workout. The sweet spot for my gym is 6:30 to 7:30 am. There were less than 10 people there and nobody in the cross training room:
I was in here for a couple exercises and then in the machine room.
| Exercise | Set/rep/ |
| Barbell squats | 3 sets of 10 |
| Dumbbell side lunges | 3 sets of 10 |
| Seated leg extension | 3 sets of 10 |
| Seated hamstrings curl | 3 sets of 10 |
| Standing abductor raise | 3 sets of 10 |
| Standing calf raise | 3 sets of 10 |
| Stiff-legged deadlift | 3 sets of 10 |
I can already tell I will have some trouble on the stairs tomorrow 😀
So, on to the fireplace. The living room is in the beginnings of its transformation. Here is the fireplace:
Yeah, ignore our big screen TV in front of it. It went kablooey over the weekend and is just sitting there. It started smoking out the back. And of course, it was about 10 days out of warranty. Gah! Not an expense we really wanted. We have a smaller TV from our bedroom for now, but John misses his big TV.
Anyway… I am not sure if this fireplace facing is original or not. It was converted to gas about 15 years ago. The person who built this house in 1919 owned a brick company. The brick on this fireplace looks way different than the brick in the rest of the house, or like what is used for the basement fireplace:
That leads me to think the brick in the living room was added later. Not to mention the hearth is some cement piece that is cracked in half. Obviously that will need to be replaced at some point and we will probably reface the fireplace in the future, but it isn’t in the budget now.
I don’t like the pinkish hue that this brick has. At all. I don’t know if it comes through in the picture or not. That won’t look right with anything that we are going to do to the room as far as color goes on the wall. Whether that is gray or purple…grayish purple??..remains to be seen. So, I am thinking about committing the cardinal sin of painting the fireplace. That is the one time with paint where you can’t go back to the original surface. Brick will soak up the paint, so if I do it, it’s permanent. I suppose if we are thinking of redoing the front anyway, it doesn’t matter, but I was just thinking on the off chance it if was original that I wouldn’t want to do it. So there is that. If I do paint it, the color will be the creamy white of the rest of the trim in the house.
On to some food! John won the picks, so we headed out for dinner at Recovery Grill. We always enjoy our food there.
Chicken sammie:
I had to take a picture of John’s Mahi Mahi tacos
Aren’t they pretty? Now it’s my turn to win picks because it has been a couple weeks.
Ha! I was just at the gym today, thinking “I need to tell Lori I am now watching HGTV instead of my cooking shows sometimes!” And there was a designer on there who started painting a fireplace, and the daughter came in halfway through and said “my mom will hate that.” So they didn’t explain it like you did, but the designer said, well now I need more money in the budget to replace it. I think your fireplace is pretty. But of course, I LIKE pink :))
Good eats! I kinda wish I could go out for dinner tonight. I’m tired.
I like pink in an ironic way, but not my fireplace LOL!
Good grief, I didn’t mean to leave that little face making that laughing? motion!
No matter if it’s original or not, if you don’t like it, then change it. Paint now, total replacement down the line? Why not?
I need to do at least something and Deb metioned staining, which I had thought about before but kind of forgot. I just don’t want to mess up the integrity of the house if is original (I am kind of like Nicole Curtiss that way).
Not a fan of brick fireplaces. Could live with it if i had to but would prefer rock with a nice
wood mantel. I have to say i think painting the brick would be better than having the pinkish brick. 🙂
I wonder if there is anything you can do to the brick to enhance the color other than paint. Something to beat
back the pink tones?? Maybe stain? I mean you can stain concrete right? Just a thought.
Is there any way to find out if its original? the previous owners? can you track down the previous, previous owners? lol
Hugs! deb
I had thought about staining the brick. You can use concrete stain. I think I will revisit that. I would like a darker color if we keep the brick, more towards the brown end than the red end. I guess if I stain it and don’t like it – then I can paint it 😀
I believe the original owners have passed on. I talked the the previous, previous owners, who gave me a of info, but we didn’t actually talk about that part. He said he converted the fireplace to gas, but didn’t mention redoing it.
Im with SHELLEY even thought I would leave it 🙂
If it was me, even if I was going to resurface the fireplace eventually, I’d paint it now just so I wouldn’t hate it every time I walked in the room. I’ve actually got some stuff like that going on in my own house – not what I really want but the temporary fix is better than what was there!
Good luck walking tomorrow lol!
And now I see that Shelley said basically the same thing so that MUST mean you should do it! 😀
Temporary fixes sometimes end up being permanent ones, don’t they?
I was wondering if you have a historian in town who would come by and look at the brick and be able to tell you if it is original or not? That might be a possibility. It would be interesting to find out if it was of the same era. I love learning stuff like that, something new and yet tied to history, ya know?
Did John have sweet potato fries? His fish tacos look awesome!
Yes, John loves the sweet potato fries!
There is definitely a sweet spot at my gym too. Similar to yours. Basically, the time around when most people are getting to work the gym is a ghost town. It’s nice when I have appointments and can hit the gym beforehand and get there when it’s empty!
I watch shows on HGTV all the time, and have seen brick fireplaces painted, and actually like how it looks. I do see the “pinkish” hue and I am not a big fan of it.
Happy Friday!
Buh bye old fireplace!!! Would John share his tacos and yam fries with me? They look delicious. Kidding of course! Have a great weekend Lori!
There is a faux stone product that is inexpensive and for you would be very easy to apply. I cannot remember the name – it is sold at HD & Lowes.
Karen
Yum – I love fish tacos!!!
The fireplace in our basement family room was painted to blend in with the wall when we bought our house (tan/tan) – I repaint it red so it would be a pop of color and it makes me much happier!!!
Wahoo for workouts!!!!! OK, I am useless with home stuff so leaving it to the experts – you and the others!!! 🙂
Our fireplace was with bricks too when we bought the house. We never liked it and when we redid the kitchen and living room a couple of years we removed the bricks and just painted it. It looks so much better now.
Good for you to be back at weight lifting, especially since you love doing it.