| Just over 12 years ago we purchased our first family | | | | removed and replaced the wooden surrounds with |
| home in the legendary City of Robin Hood Nottingham. | | | | new ones which had a rustic feel and maintained the |
| As money was tight we had to stretch our budgets | | | | overall look. |
| and be extremely creative. This included using our old | | | | The challenge came when we removed the hearth in |
| bath panel as part of the décor in the front | | | | our living room. Replacing this seemed to be really |
| room. | | | | difficult. Firstly we did not have much money which |
| Sounds like and interesting challenge doesn't it? Well | | | | limited our choice of new tiles. In fact we ended up |
| here is how it all came about. | | | | looking at dozens of tile swatches from the budget |
| The home we purchased is in a really leafy suburb of | | | | ranges which whilst nice did not fit in with the whole |
| the city. Both my partner and I had stepped up moving | | | | theme of the room. |
| to this area and decided to buy the best house we | | | | It was then that I had an inspired idea. A couple of |
| could afford in the best area. I guess we had taken to | | | | days before we ripped out and replaced our old bath |
| heart the mantra 'location, location, location'. | | | | from the family bathroom. In fact at this point it was |
| As a result we ended up with a real fixer-upper that | | | | sitting on our driveway waiting to be loaded into a skip |
| required massive renovation. In our new home all the | | | | and taken down to the dump. My partner had |
| floor boards and joists where rotten, the windows | | | | commented about the lovely black marble panel and |
| needed changing plus we needed new electric, gas | | | | how it was a shame to dump it. My idea was to take |
| and heating services. The garden was somewhat | | | | this and get it cut down to be used as our new fire |
| Jurassic looking although it did have some fantastic | | | | hearth. |
| rose bushes in. All in all we had taken on a massive | | | | Finding a stone mason just took a quick look through a |
| money draining task. | | | | local business directory and a couple of calls. I am glad |
| Not to be discouraged we set about turning our newly | | | | we found a professional as not only did he cut it to |
| acquired project into a home. One of the attractive | | | | size but also offered us advice on how to care for a |
| aspects of the house was all the original 1930's | | | | new precious fire hearth. |
| features. This included fantastic internal doors which | | | | We installed it quickly using cement to hold it in place. I |
| we got stripped professionally and also some really | | | | then took a trip to our local discount ceramic tile |
| nice original cast iron fireplaces. | | | | warehouse and purchased some matching mosaic |
| The fireplaces really created a central feature in both | | | | tiles to go around the edge of the fire itself. |
| the dining and living room areas. However both | | | | The end result is outstanding and even to this day we |
| fireplaces needed some serious work and desperately | | | | find guests to our home commenting on the lovely |
| needed restoring. | | | | feature fireplace in our front room. Needless to say |
| We used special chemicals to strip off all the old soot | | | | they are always amazed when we come clean and |
| and scorch marks from the fires themselves. Then we | | | | explain our resourceful use of our old bath panel. |