We're so hip...?

I just read this article on Remodelista and it made me feel like we're ahead of the hip curve.  There's a whole back story to our fireplace. You can read about right here.  I was going to have it redone soon but none of us here at home are ready to let go of our art just yet.  P loves to tell people when they come over that she's allowed to draw on our wall and in fact they can do it to.  But no one dares....

The art work is actually not complete.  My idea is missing one major element. After reading the article I think I'll have P finish what we started. The finishing touch involves her using a can of black spray paint.  I won't tell Dave the plan. I'll let him come home to it finished. He might have a heart attack if he knows what's in store!  

The House is My Canvas

This is how we roll on a Tuesday afternoon. We had 40's French music playing. Annika was hot and decided to only wear her bloomers while she drew on the fire place.  I'm on the couch laughing and cheering Annika on as she does the funniest dance! These are the days I'll be most proud of when I look back at the time I spent with my girls.  


I mentioned before that we had a problem with the fireplace.  I don't want to have it plastered and painted with a baby in the house.  There would be too much toxic stuff in the air and I don't want to go through the hassle of having to explain to people why this is important to me.  I always get the "you'll be fine, the baby will be fine" and then I tell them my concerns and they have no idea what I'm talking about because they've never read and understood the ingredients in a can of paint. 


So, until we go forward with a renovation I decided we should have fun with this space.  I got big fat Sharpies and we've been drawing on the wall. I know it's nuts. The best is watching people react to it when they walk in the house.  Most don't get it.  Oh well.  We're enjoying this freedom. I mean who gets to write on the house walls for Pete's sake?!?!

The Fireplace

Our fireplace is looking rather dreadful these days.  The week we brought the baby home from the hospital the fireplace started to fall apart...again.  How ironic is this?  Four years ago when we brought P home from the hospital,  the fireplace lost two tiles from the top. My dad was staying with us at the time so he fixed it.  

Now, the same thing happened again. And again it happened the week we brought baby G home, except it was two tiles from the bottom. When Dave grabbed them to fully take them off he realized every tile above it was resting on the one below;  a domino effect in action.  That was it!  Dave took the tacky tiles off and pulled apart the half ass job someone did with our fireplace.  First it's a safety hazard with the kids and second we hate how it looked. This is how it was before. 

And now it looks even worse!  However, I'm not about to call someone to fix it for two reasons. The first I'll write about later and the second, because I don't want cement, paint, plaster, etc fumes floating in this house with a newborn.  So, ugly will live with us for a while.  I stare at this thing every day and everyday I dream of it looking like a version of this.

Image from Houzz

I think the fireplace would look great in the same grey/black tone as our chalkboard wall.  Well, we'll see how long I can look at ugly before I go nuts!