Fireplace Progress: We Have a Mantle

We have been working really hard on our fireplace project during any spare minute we can find, which is often few and far between.  But every now and then the stars align and sports don't dominate our weekend and we make some progress.  One fun project that we loved working on was creating our own mantle for above the fireplace.  We got a beautiful piece of lumber and then we planed it and beat the trash out of it.  We then stained and lacquered it.  Ian also welded us some brackets to put around the log and he did an awesome job.  He is becoming quite the accomplished welder.

We are getting so close!