Back in '83 I made an oak slab mantle for our first house. The builder let Dad and me do the fireplace stone and mantle, In February 2020, the lady that bought that house called, and said she was redoing the fireplace and did I want that "beautiful mantle" back. "Of course!" At the time, I didn't know we would be starting to divorce in a month and that I would be moving. I was just saving a nice piece of oak for a future project. So, I brought it with me when I moved, and a project became redoing the fireplace here. I tried the mantle out on top of the existing mantle, and it was too long for the wall and adjacent TV. so I had to cut it down. At least it was way easier to cut it shorter than cutting it longer.... I sourced some real stone veneer for the fireplace wall, and hired a mason to do the wall, in the style that my father and his father-in-law did the masonry for the house I grew up in here in Moline. (That's another thread sometime...) I did the demo myself, and installed the cement board and mounted the mantle. The hearth is a custom single slab of limestone. It dang near killed the mason and I getting it out of his truck, up the front steps and into the living room.
