The Fire

I love my house. It's a simple ranch-style rambler that we bought from my husband's mother. It doesn't look anything like it did when they owned it. They painted all the walls bright white because they like light. I do too but I also like color so all the walls had to be painted when we bought it. They had while carpet throughout, except where there was some linoleum in the kitchen. The pad under the carpet must have been used through a couple carpet changes because it was rotten and smelly. We replaced all of it, even replaced the sub-floors under the hardwoods in the hallway, kitchen, and family room and the carpet in one bedroom. We removed three or four layers of wallpaper from several rooms and painted. But probably the coolest thing we did was reface the fireplace. It was painted white brick with a marble slab hearth and no mantle. Very contemporary. We are very "wish we had a log cabin by the lake style" people so this was where we decided to bring in that feeling. We borrowed one of my brother's employees who covered the painted brick with masonry board. Then Jeff, my brother, arranged for a crew of masons to come in and set the cultured field-stone. Another of his friends made our mantle from a thick slab of old oak that he found in his brother's barn. It still has some of the bark around the bottom edge. We added a wrought-iron type fireplace insert and voilà, a gorgeous, rustic fireplace that puts out a ton of heat! It's where we begin our days throughout the fall and winter, and sometimes where we spend our evenings. It's where I am right now and I'm irritated because I have to leave. It's Saturday morning and I'm supposed to be in choir practice in 25 minutes. I'm still in my bathrobe, in front of the fire. I want to stay here. I'm irritated because it's Saturday morning and my tradition is being disturbed. Oh well, I like to sing too, just not as much as I like to sit by the fire with coffee and graze through computer posts, news articles, and my new issue of Cabin Living that just arrived. But as I often tell my junior high students, life is full of doing stuff you don't want to do, so just do it. (I'm usually talking about homework.) So I'd better get dressed and go. Good-bye computer, good-bye Cabin Living, good-bye coffee, good-bye fire... sigh...