Brightening it up

When I first walked into this home back in August, I thought to myself that if I got this house, I couldn't wait to rip off the valance over the sliding glass door, and do something to that horrid little fireplace.  It's such an awkward setup - the fireplace in the corner, and with it being all dark and brick, it was just a black hole!  So today, I got out the leftover tan paint from the walls (it was freshly painted - not my first choice of color, but it will do for now), and painted the fireplace.  Tedious work - but what a difference!

Now it blends into the rest of the room, and suddenly, arranging the furniture doesn't seem so complicated.  Also, getting rid of that curtain valance really cleans up the room.  I've got a set of nice, neutral curtains that I am going to hang tomorrow; a LOT of sun comes in during the late afternoon.

I know some people aren't thrilled with painted brick - but this was not pretty brick, my friends.  We are planning to eventually drywall over this, add a nice mantel and tile later, but this free update really freshens it up.  And, as I was cleaning the junk away from the corner (American flag, some random dowels), I see on the floor a gas valve -- what?  We have a gas fireplace?  We were told this was a wood-burning fireplace.  There was so much soot and ash left in the fireplace, you can't even see the gas pipes.  I shoveled all the ash out, found the hatch for the cleanout and discovered the gas pipes, which look pretty rusty.  They'd need to be replaced, but at least the gas is run.

Well, in other news, it looks like we won't have the bathroom finished before we move in.  That's not totally unexpected, random plumbing and electrical issues took up more time than we'd hoped for.  We are hoping to get the shower functional during this next week, but we have to move in tomorrow so we can vacate our rental by Monday.  We may have to live with a plywood floor for a week or so, but nothing we can't handle.  The first house we remodeled together didn't have a functional bathroom for well over a month, and we managed.  The hardest part will be keeping our troublesome cats out of there, it's a veritable playground for the naughty kitties!