What to do about my fireplace/chimney surround?

Looking in architectural books makes sense. Maybe some of the older style books from the time your house was built. Any good university or art school libraries nearby? You might just come across a design that could be tweaked to fit the need.

I figured not!

My aunt had a 'tudor' sort of spanish stucco coated house in west LA, circa late twenties, early thirties. Trying to remember her fireplace. (blank... stucco and firebricks, probably a thin mantle).

My grandparents lived in a 1920's tudor. Their large main fireplace was carved of a sandstone type rock with figures of knights and ladies surrounded by foliage. I loved it as a kid and played "castle" inside of it with my dolls in the summer after the final winter ashes were cleared out. Know any stone carvers, Boomer?

Your grandparents' tudor was fancier than my aunt's (smiles). But my aunt's had black widows...

On the books - I'd strongly recommend bookstores and wallowing through a bunch of them in person, or with Mr. B. Maybe a 1 - 2.
Since you live at the home of Powell's, Boomer, I can only be roly-poly envious.
But you may also have an arch type store.

A nice long gun hung over the fireplace is a nice touch...

H2O, I would agree if the house was an early American colonial or a farmhouse, but not a tudor. A long rifle would be an anachronism. A tudor needs some crossed swords, a shield or a good old fashioned mace. If weaponry is one's thing.

A little aside here. I don't want this to sound like I'm scolding you, Boomer, but think of this as a warning to others who might come across this thread and are planning to add a permanent architectural detail to their home: Don't settle for less than what you really want. This problem was created by not waiting for the flush insert. I know the idea was to save money with the installation, but fixing the cosmetic problem here is going to cost more than this years energy savings and you will have to live with the results for the rest of your time in the house.

I see this happen a lot when I work with interior designers and architects. Clients get impatient. They really want window style A, but because it is out of stock they go with window style B, and then try and find ways to cover up what they don't like about window B. Or the difference between the quality wood door and the plastic faux wood door is $500. Instead of waiting and saving the additional $500, they put in the plastic door and then spend time and money looking for ways to make their entrance look less cheap. I'm often asked to landscape in a way that hides the cheapo shed behind the half million dollar house or disguises the ugly fencing around the $50,000 pool.

My advice for all you home improvement people: Do it once, do it right and buy the best you can afford. Be patient. Figure out how long you might have to wait for what your really want and measure that time in terms of how long you will be living with the item. Think about how much more it will cost you in terms of money or regrets if you settle for less.
Stepping off my Miss Know-it-all soapbox now.

I was feeling that I had been too strident when rereading what I posted on 'not rushing' and being sure with what you want by researching the possibilities from period photos, Boomer. But I do so agree with Green Witch on this, that it is a very important house feature. Also, I should add I liked some of the earlier photos people put up as idea possibilities...

Powell's Technical Book Store might be where the architecture type books are.

Here's the hennessey & ingalls link (largest art and architecture bookstore in north america..) - will look around and see if I can find anything useful, at least at first glance. I could've spent a good half a day at a time in their old Santa Monica store.

http://www.hennesseyingalls.com/hennessey/default.asp?s_id=0

Hmmm, that H & I link seems a tad spare for what I expect them to have... seem to be just recent works. (But, Powells...)

Here's one I gave away when I sold my last 'bungalow' -
http://www.amazon.com/California-Bungalow-Robert-Winter/dp/0912158859
Can't remember if that's the one with all the plans.. think that was a much thicker book.
There are some other books listed on that link page that look interesting,


I'm guessing you have a Tudor Bungalow.
http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ig/House-Styles/Bungalow-Styles.htm
Lots of links there...


Hmmm, American Bungalow Style --
http://www.amazon.com/American-Bungalow-Style-Robert-Winter/dp/068480168X

tangent - for tile lovers, a page I just found with books I crave to look at..
a lot of books about tile heritage

Omigod, I want all those books..

I would have been waiting for eternity for the other insert. It wasn't going to come. Our fireplace was much larger than a typical fireplace and there were only about three styles to choose from. This one was second best, well.... first best since the other one simply wasn't going to come, ever. It was this insert or no insert.

Mr. B is starting to warm up to my idea of building a cabinet type thing, something very simple, that encloses the chimney. Mimicing the curves of the chimney might be tricky but I know there is someone in town who does old school steaming and bending so.....

I think for now I'll just look for the tile to go in front. Then maybe just paint the fireplace a slightly different shade from the walls. I'm not ready to paint just yet though as we are still working on stripping the window trim.

I do want to get the work done while this guy is available, he's kind of hard to get. He's the only person who has ever done anything to our floors at either house. He's a true craftsman. He usually stays booked up.

Right now he's not staying booked up because he owes Mr. B's company so much money that Mr. B can't sell to him any more. He's done a lot of installations that he can't get paid for. He can't really repossess someone's floor.

We also have a small entry/mudroom floor that needs to be tiled.

Since we aren't talking about much space in any of the areas I can probably go for some cool tile/stone/whatever.

There is a Pratt and Larson tile store a few blocks from Mo's music school. I went by there last Wednesday but they were closed.

School starts again on Monday after a three week break so I should be able to get out and about to the places, like tile shops, that Mo finds intolerably boring. Well... school is supposed to start on Monday..... the foot and a half of snow melted and now the creeks, including the one that runs a half block from my house, are flooding. We're up high so we don't have to worry but I'm sure many people in the district are having problems. The forecast calls for a lot more rain and maybe snow over the weekend. This winter has kicked my fair city's ass.