This is the fireplace before makeover. It was a Heatolater brand wood burning fireplace with used brick face and raised limestone hearth. The problem was that the Heatolator was rusting apart and the raised hearth was 2 ft x 8 ft, taking up too much floor space, and it was dangerous for the kids to play around so it was always covered with "rubber bumpers" for safety. Not very attractive!

This is the computer desk we used for years. Time for a change. Want to hide the PC and printer in cabinets and add more storage overhead.

This is the TV/stereo setup. It works, but there is no storage for DVD's and CD's.

The fireplace hearth and brick face has already been removed. That navy blue pannel is a 1" thick foam pannel that we used to cover the front of the fireplace during the winter because so much cold air came through it when not in use. The new fireplace draws combustion air from outside, and has no louvers to allow cold air to leak into the room. It will be much warmer when not being used.

The wall to the right of the fireplace was not being utilized. But there was a plant that did very well in that location! This area will be book cases.

This is the setup for the last year or so. Berber carpet, sofa and coffee & end tables. The carpet is getting worn and we are tired of renting carpet cleaners. This sectional is large, because it is a queen size sleeper. We ordered this furniture special for this room in anticipation of doing a complete makeover.

Fist step was to remove the brick face and raised hearth. A 2" cold chisel and 3lb sledge easilly separated the brick from the mortar and did not make too much of a mess in the room. Took 3 full weekends to get it all cleaned out with everone (wife and kids) helping haul out the debris in buckets. Its winter so the fireplace opening is covered in plastic to keep the draft down.

The room is heated by baseboard heat. The pipe runs the perimeter of the room, and passed right throught the raised hearth. This was a real pain to chip out of the concrete with out breaking the copper pipe. Its still winter, so we need the heat! Later the baseboard is completely re-done and does not pass in front of the fireplace.

The carpet was not too hard to remove. Plus the kids were a big help removing tac strips and picking up debris. Removing tac strips from a concrete floor is time consuming and messy. The strips break up into little 6 - 8 inch pieces. To make it more difficult, the carpet installers put down double rows of tack strips.

This room is 16ft x 20ft. The ceiling has a beam running down the center and a fan is suspended from it. The sheetrock had many cracks and settling made the corner metal strips pop loose. Took me a few days to spackle and sand it all smooth before painting.

Took the baseboard heat registers off two of the three walls, and re-used it to make an L shapped heat register rather than the U shape it was. The whole time this work is going on, the furniture is covered in plastic and the TV and PC are still connected! This went on for about 3 months! Talk about making things harder on yourself....

In order to make the new L shape heat register work and connect to the same locations where the pipes enter the room, the pipe had to double back on itself. This is SunTemp brand, and they have hangers built in to support the return line above the heat fins. To save cost, I re-used the sections of heat register that were behind the TV and on either side of the fireplace to make a new length of register that you can see against the far wall. The result is that there is enough register for the size of the room, and it is all hidden behind the sectional. The register housings were all removed and spray painted with Rustolium Epoxy Paint (appliance paint) to give a fresh look and hard durable finish. The register housings were re-installed with screws rather than nails that pull loose that the builder used.

There were a few really bad seams in the sheet rock in this this room. Looks like an apprentice did the work. Seeing as the room is a mess anyway, I cut into the bad joints and feathered the sheet rock edges, then re-tapped and spackled. Had to do this in 3 different locations in the room. Its those "while your at it" additional fixes that make the project drag out.

Replacing the fireplace was not a job I could do. So I got some pros to remove the old and install the new Majestic brand fireplace. This included new chimney pipe and cap on top. Two guys were in and out in about 6 hours. Plus they took away the old fireplace and pipes.

Before the installer put the new fireplace in, I took this shot facing up the chimney chase. This is what is inside those framed chimneys. The insulation is on the room side of the chimney.

The room has a concrete floor that is above grade by about a foot or so. We wanted to install conventional hardwood flooring, but that would mean a subfloor be built and that would raise the floor above the sliding doors. So instead we went with an "Engineered Hardwood" floor by Kahrs. This floor is 3/8" Ash hardwood bonded to a lay of plywood. This floor can be nailed down, glued down, or floated over concrete. So we floated it. Even though the concrete is dry as a bone, we installed the vapor barrier to retain the floor warrentee. Floor is a locking tongue and groove install that is hammerd together. Fits tighter than anything I ever saw. Again, I got a lot of help from Jamie.

The new hearth is ceramic tile and is flush to the floor. In this photo, the tile is being test fit to the cutout in the wood flooring.

Ceiling is painted, floor installed, so now its time to paint the walls. Ended up painting the room twice. I didn't like the first color, and we wend a shade darker. This is the final color.

Ceiling and walls painted. Fan is back in place.

These are the wall cabinets for the Computer Desk. Two 27" wide cabinets were joined together then screwed to the wall as a single unit. A 1-1/2 inch wide maple spacer was added to the left hand side to match a spacer needed on the desk base cabinets to clear the baseboard heat return pipe.

All the cabinets and book cases are by Brandom (in Texas) were ordered from cab-net.com and shipped directly to my house. They are maple with a light honey finish. Great quality cabnetry they have dove tail joined drawers of solid hardwood, fully adjustable hidden hinges, rubber bump stops that are not just "stick on", and hardwood mounting points (not just pressboard).

Mounted the wall cabinets, then started to assemble the base cabinets to make the computer desk. The base cabinets will hold the PC on the left, and the printer on the right with drawer unit in center.

Desk takes a while to fit together. Spacer is needed to bring cabinet away from wall so baseboard heat pipe can pass through to where it exits the room in the corner behind desk. So a 1 1/2" spacer was ripped from 3/4" maple board, then trimmed to mach the curve of the wall (who would have thought the wall is not straight!). Details take time.

Nearly done. Top is 3/4 veneer ply with 3/4" quarter round glued to edge. Stained a dark cherry color to match the cherry pannels on the coffee and end tables.

The back of the left cabinet has a cutout with 3/4" foam seal around it's parimeter. The back of the PC fits tight against this seal venting the warm air, and allows the monitor, keyboard and other wires to connect to the rear of the PC. Cool air is drawn into the cabinet through a 3/8" offset around the cabinet door and drawer. This design works well and the cabinet stays cool inside.

The step needed to be rebuilt because the flooring raised the floor 3/4", and that little change made the old step feel funny. Also narrowed the steb about 8" for more clearance for the heat register. Notice how the baseboard heat pipe runs through the step with the new room layout. Step riser and sides are cut from 2x6, the tread is the original 5/4" tread cut down.

The new step is covered with the Ash flooring. The edge of the tread is made from Bull Nose ordered with the flooring. The baseboard heat pipe passing through the step is also boxed in using flooring. The finish wall trim on either side of step is not installed in this photo.

After the computer desk was done, the book cases were test fit for spacing to the right of the fire place. The room is becoming useable again as the sectional is put back in place.

Three units, 24", 30" and another 24" were glued and screwed together to make a single unit. Then the whole unit was screwed to the wall. One reason I ordered these book cases from cab-net.com was that the cases are made from solid hardwood or veneer plywood. No pressboard or MDF is used in the book cases. The big brown board leaning against the cases is the top for the entertainment center.

These cabinets and book case make up the entertainment center. The base cabinets were glued and screwed together to make a single unit. The back left and right corners were cut off the cabinets to make them fit as per the plan. A false left end pannel was added at 45* angle to front to make it look right.

Cabinets are fit together and have the same spacing from fireplace as book cases on the far right.

Top is made from same veneer plywood as computer desk. I'm really pleased how this came out. TV is still on old stand in center of room, and my work bench is still piled with tools and suff. Space is tight making all work that much more difficult.

Finally get to move the TV to the new entertainment center cabinets. Stereo, DVD player, Sub-Woofer, etc are in the left hand cabinet.

This cabinet is a play house for now, but I plan on installing a few roll out tray style shelves to hold DVD's and music CD's. Also, you can see how the corner that was cut off the cabinet was finished from the inside (behind my son). Masonite with contact paper in wood grain vinyl does the job well. My daughter is taking my picture as I took this one.

PC is in desk, new flat pannel LCD monitor leaves lots of desk top space. The maple pannel leaning against the door is for the end of the desk. The desk base cabinets are set off the wall about 2 inches. This offset is because the PC vents warm air out the rear of the left cabinet. The pannel will make the desk end fit flush to the wall.

This is the handle we picked out for all the cabinets. Brushed chrome with 5 little square holes in it. Fairly contemporary without looking like it belongs in a kitchen.

Room is finally getting cleaned up. Work bench and tools are out. Next will be the stone work for the fireplace.

After doing a lot of research, I decided it was best to hire a stone mason to do the fireplace. I covered the cabinets and wall with plastic, and the mason put down 1/2" flake board over heavy roll paper on the new floor to protect it. These guys did outstanding work. I'm glad I had a pro do it because they cut almost every stone they placed.

The mason took 4 days to finish. Well worth the wait. After a few days I scrubbed down the stones with a scrub brush and plain water to remove any dirt residue. That really brightened up the colors. Now I can lay the tile for the flush hearth in the cutout on the floor.

We are so pleased. This really turned out so much better than we thought. Its a real centerpiece in the room.

We have been taking about adding two mini recessed lights in the ceiling about 18" out from the stone to shine down as accent. There is already a separate lighting circuit run to the ceiling fan that can be re-used to run the accent lights. Will have to think about this some more...

The mason suggested some sort of finished surface below the glass doors. So I asked if he could cut a piece out of the original limestone hearth we removed. He did, and it looks great and will be easy to clean. I also like the "keystone" he cut and placed center above the doors.

We originally planned to use a beige tile for the hearth, but after laying them out, we decided to go with a darker color. Ended up with this medium-dark slate. It will hide dirt and ash from the fireplace and cleans up easy with soap and water. Slate is set using thinset morter. Used latex grout in a tube and applied with caulk gun. Worked out great.

The room is done. Here are finished photos.

Desk

Sectional.

Needed new lighting for the end tables. Found these oak and polished nickel lamps on the web. They are made by Pacific Coast Lignting. A nice contempory design that goes with the rest of the furniture.

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Its now Novermber, 2007 and I finally made a fire. The new fireplace works great. No smoke in the room, no smokey smell, great draft, draws air from outside, and still radiates a good amount of heat into the room. But best of all it does not leak cold air into the room like the previous fireplace did. So those nasty drafts and cold feet are a thing of the past. Well worth the expense of replacing the old unit with a new one. Also, the new baseboard heat registers provide plenty of heat to the room, even though there is about 30% less register, and no freezing problems becaue the pipes do not go under the door or under the hearth anymore. Hope you enjoyed viewing this family room makeover!