Fireplace Renovation

One of the main parts of our renovation that I wanted to get done before Christmas was our fireplace. I had dreams of a beautiful log burner with brick surround and wooden beam to bring that country/ cozy feel. Below is a picture of what we were dealing with: 

We hired Derwas Fire & Stoves to help us with this. They had a fabulous selection and were very knowledgeable of all things fire! They are a wonderful family run company and were happy to help with any questions we had. 

After a few months of planning (we'd picked a certain brick called watergate blend from Huws Gray, shape and our Hobbit Stove) and we were so excited to get things sorted. We were so happy to be able to get this done in August way before the electric & gas prices were going up so at least we would have another source of fuel. 

However, this was not meant to be. As our fitter started chipping away at our fireplace, removing the old mantle etc...

And we hit a problem. Our fitter told us that after inspecting the fire internally when breaking through, the chimney flue was illegal and couldn't be used for either a gas or real fire although a gas fire was what we were ripping out (luckily we had never used it since buying the house a year ago). He showed us that as the chimney flue was touching the insulation of the house it had actually already discoloured and burnt a lot of the insultation and would eventually cause a house fire.  Safe to say I was devastated. Although I was not entirely surprised with how much bad luck we normally had with things like this. So after a quick discussion, my husband and I had to resign ourselves to the fact we would have to get an electric fire and so the fitters were just to build us the surround instead.

It was definitely a turn of events but at least we still got to have the slate flooring, brick surround and wooden beam. 

Although we had no log burner installed in the end, I'm definitely happy with the result of the fireplace. Derwas did such a wonderful job, helped solve the big issue of the flue and managed to give us a fireplace we could be proud of. 

The only thing missing was the fire itself and so I took to Facebook marketplace to find us a cheap one to create the look. I'm happy to report we managed to nab one from our local town for £20, works like a dream and creates the right ambience. Although we won't be using it very often for heat (due to electric going up) at least we got the aesthetic we were after. 

Ciao for now,

Laura x