Fireplace Find

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Around here the Christmas seasons kicks-off with something called 'Christmas in the Country'. It's a small holiday festival held in a small town not far from where we live. It takes place the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Located in this town is an awesome antique store we love to rummage around in. There is a cast iron summer cover for a fireplace there I've ogled for quite some time. The owner of the shop saw us looking at it and told us the cast iron surround was outside behind the shop.

Like I said, we knew the summer cover was there for a few years but had no idea he had the cast iron surround that it belonged to!

I have always been a big fan of Victorian cast iron fireplace surrounds so I just had to look.

This is what we found! Sorry the pic is a bit 'fuzzy'; all I had was my cell phone to work with.

Anyway, the surround, and summer cover, came out of a house that was built in 1883 and burned to the ground in the '30s.

As you can see there is some damage, but it can be fixed. The mantle shelf has the worst damage but there are some foundries in our area that might be able to help us.

Also, there are four panels that can be removed. I need to do some research, but I think the inserts are removable so that they can be replaced by tile, marble, etc. I've also seen these panels painted in faux marble and tortoise shell.

Isn't this summer cover exceptional?!

As you all know, we are really looking at installing a fireplace in the living room. We are hoping we can use these; they are truly unique. To be honest I don't think I know of a single house in the area with a cast iron surround.

As soon as I get the surround home, and cleaned up, I'll get some better pictures and post them.

Before I forget, now that it is getting colder, and we can no longer do a lot of work on the outside of the house, I'll start bringing you all up to speed on the painting progress.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry