fireplace and hearth finally finished.

So I had a deadline to finish the fireplace by Christmas. I don't know why - I guess I had it in my head it is sort of a center-piece for the holiday and so wanted it finished. Or maybe I just wanted it finished.

First I had to tear off the plywood subflooring whoever put in that raised the ceramic tiles they had installed (but never grouted - it was one of the things they literally froze and stopped doing as soon as I put in an offer on this little house) above the level of the wood floor. I never understood that. So I ripped it out. Which revealed the original clay hearth and fir floor -

The fir flooring was slightly lower than the clay hearth so time to mix up some Presto Patch -

I've used to level flooring in the past (in the guest bath to even it out with the kitchen subfloor before installing tile way back when) and had some leftover -

The thing that took the longest - maybe surprisingly, maybe not - was choosing the tiles to place and the pattern to use. I needed ten and had maybe fourteen or so - some were more grey than others or had less orange so I tried to get them to all look as close as possible. I love love love slate and how each tile is different but since it was such a small area (maybe eight square feet or so) I wanted less irregularities between the ten tiles I had to place. Over a larger area the irregularities would have seemed less - well - obvious I guess. Or so went my thinking.

But after a bit of time I had a pattern figured out and headed out to the garage to break out the $20-garage-sale-find tile saw to cut the slate -

Then mix up some leftover thinset I had from when I tiled the shower in the guest bath a couple years back and set everything in place -

While it set I switched gears to finish trimming my bedroom closet. Fit the baseboards in perfectly - and finally realized that if you don't have to use a hammer to wedge trim to fit you cut it too short ...

(like here I'd hit that scrap 1x4 on one corner a few times, then slide it over to the other corner and tap a bit, then back - and forth - and back - and forth - until it was firmly wedged in place). Then I cut out the threshold and finished off the 'step' into the closet -

And the closet was finished -

Then back to the hearth. And time to grout. I thankfully had the foresight to read up on grouting slate beforehand and got the little tip to pre-seal slate - since it's so porous. Without presealing the tile I guess it just soaks up the grout and it becomes nearly impossible to get the grout off the tile. And another tip to use a frosting-like applicator bag (frosting as in cake frosting - tapered to a point on one end so you can squeeze out the grout directly into the space between the tiles) - which I just happened to have gotten at some garage sale years ago probably with most of my other tiling and grouting tools.

I have to say even after all that - getting grout off slate is next to impossible. Ugh. I was admittedly glad I was only doing eight square feet even though I'd love to have a complete slate floor in my kitchen and back in the laundry room. I'd have to test some sealers on scrap tiles first to try to minimize the extreme work required to get the grout off the tile.

But after some time on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and half vinegar-half water solution that did work quite well to get all the grout haze off the tile (the toothbrush was used to try to scrub the grout from all the crevasses and unevenness of the slate) I got most of it off -

And after touching up some spots on the fireplace that got scratched while installing the slate (I used Benjamin Moore hc-104 copley grey) it was finished (and actually level with the rest of the flooring) -

So now - finally - with the paneling I installed above the mantel this past January - the paint and now the slate - the fireplace is complete. I had wanted to strip the paint from the brick but after testing some spots I discovered the brick wasn't very pretty. Nor was it above the mantel - I had ripped off the beadboard years ago hoping to find beautiful brick. Nope. Just plaster. So I built that paneling.

But now that it's done I like it. Some old original brick would have been cool but oh well. I still like it. Oh yeah - and here's what it used to look like when I first moved in -