ASK This Old House _ Colors, Fireplace Upgrade (S19 E25) FULL EPISODE
**Article: Transforming Spaces: Insights from Experts**
**Introduction**
In the world of home improvement and renovation, every project tells a story. Whether it's about creating a safe haven for injured veterans, setting up a functional home gym, or transforming a fireplace into a stunning feature, each endeavor is unique and purposeful. This article delves into these projects, offering insights from experts and highlighting the challenges and triumphs encountered along the way.
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**Building a Home for Injured Veterans: Adaptive Features and Rehabilitation**
Montana's vast landscapes provide a serene backdrop for the home of Beau, a Navy SEAL who lost his left leg and sustained injuries during a tour in Afghanistan. The journey to build this home was not just about shelter; it was about healing.
Beau's father, a general contractor, led the project with support from Building For America’s Bravest, a nonprofit that constructs mortgage-free homes for injured veterans. The focus was on creating a space where Beau could thrive, using adaptive technology to make daily tasks easier. Features like cabinets that lower and a stove that adjusts to his needs ensure independence.
The home's design integrates Smart Home Technology, allowing Beau to manage tasks with ease. This project is more than construction; it's about providing a fresh start and the opportunity to explore new activities, such as sled hockey, where Beau now represents Team USA.
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**Setting Up a Home Gym: Functionality and Safety**
With rural living limiting access to gyms, Beau sought to create a home gym in his garage. The space, measuring 10 feet by 16 feet, was transformed into a functional workout area with safety in mind.
The conversation highlights the importance of flooring. A rubber pad was chosen for its durability and comfort, especially since Beau works out without prosthetics. The floor's design ensures safety while allowing freedom of movement.
Mirrors and equipment were strategically placed to maximize space and functionality. Chin-up bars and weight machines were installed, catering to both strength training and cardio needs. The setup reflects a balance between practicality and personal preference, ensuring a safe and effective workout environment.
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**Insights from the Painting Professional: Maro Henrique**
Marrying passion with profession, Maro Henrique transitioned from carpentry helper to painter, discovering a love for the craft. His journey began when he was asked to step in during a shortage of painters, quickly realizing his aptitude for the trade.
When painting a room, Maro emphasizes understanding the client's vision and considering lighting effects. Darker colors can make spaces feel smaller, especially without adequate natural light. He advises clients to choose colors that reflect their personality, like greens and blues, which evoke nature's tranquility.
Maro's approach is methodical, ensuring each step contributes to the final result. His advice for those undertaking painting projects: take your time, enjoy the process, and let your chosen color tell your story.
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**Renovating a Fireplace: Combining Tradition with Modern Style**
Updating a fireplace can transform a room, blending tradition with modern aesthetics. The homeowner sought to enhance their brick fireplace by adding stone elements.
The renovation involved removing the old hearth and installing blue stone for its authentic look. Stacked stone veneer was used around the fireplace, creating an elegant surround that complements both the mantel and firebox.
Experts highlighted the importance of ensuring a tight bond between the hearth and firebox to prevent hazards like ember escapes. The project demonstrates how materials can be chosen for their appearance and durability, resulting in a timeless feature.
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**Conclusion**
Each space tells a story, whether it's about resilience, functionality, creativity, or tradition. From adaptive homes to functional gyms, from painting tips to fireplace renovations, these projects showcase the transformative power of design and the expertise of those who bring them to life. By listening to these experts' insights, we can appreciate the effort and thought that go into each project, ensuring they meet both practical and emotional needs.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday on ask This Old House we'll head to Montana to build a special space for one of America's bravest well I don't use my uh Prosthetics when I usually work out so I think if I get down on my knees it'll give us the best height I think that's a good height right there let's take some measurements from that this car is going to do this this and that for this room is that what you're looking for nobody wants to size down the room and color does that a lot if they say yeah that's what I'm looking for and if you're happy I'm happy and I'll show you how to update the look of a wood burning fireplace it just looks unreal I'm so excited thank you so much all right well you're welcome Montana is called Big Sky country for a reason the vast landscape and panoramic views extend for hundreds of miles here today to meet bo richen back Beau grew up in this area and he chose a service country as a Navy Seal in Afghanistan we've been in this Village a couple times and the previous time we went in there there was huge fire fights you know it was just it was chaos in this Village and two of the guys stepped on the pressure plate in front of me and I stepped on it and uh and boom yeah I woke up looked up and saw that my left leg was gone and then my right arm I took a lot of shrapnel on the inside of my arm foreign s my whole life was to build a home for myself and for my family I knew that'd be a good good part in my rehab and his father a general contractor built this house from the ground up had some help from building for America's bravest a program of the Steven sealer tunnel the towers Foundation this nonprofit organization builds mortgage-free homes for injured veterans our goal from the beginning was us building the home I mean you're literally out here throwing in I was involved with the framing trim I pretty much did all the base work in the house not wearing my legs for a day and Scoot around on my butt each home includes adaptive and Smart Home Technology makes it nice and easy for me to kind of get on with the day the cabinets that lower out the bottom oh wow look at that oh that is cool I'm able to get stuff off the top shelf the stove it actually lowers down so when I'm cooking in my wheelchair I'm able to uh be above the food and so that none of the food ever splatters on my face or anything I can do everything in this house and there's there's nothing in this house I can't do that gives you the opportunity to explore different things in life I grew up playing hockey from the time I was four years old and I didn't find out until five months into my rehab that uh there was a sport called sled hockey three years later now I'm on Team USA which I can't be any happier than you know to represent your country in another way again for me but training to be an Olympic athlete in rural Montana comes with its challenges at one point I was a part of a gym here in town but that's a ends up being a 40-minute drive both ways just to go to the gym and get back and living out here in the country that's kind of made it difficult so you know one of the things that we don't have here that I'd like and need is the home gym well it's nice that you've got this attached to the hot space though yeah I plan on using most of it as a workshop and then uh this corner I want to do a gym all right finally been doing some measuring what do you think yeah I think this is a good corner to put the gym in we've got 16 feet here all the way to the corner yeah and then if I measure from the corner out to the garage door we got a little over 11 feet but wants to keep it back a little bit so that will make this area for the gym about 10 feet by 16 feet that work for you yeah I think it's gonna be great all right so what about the floor tom this is pretty good looking garage floor it's a beautiful garage floor but unfortunately when you're working out with weights you know you may drop the weights you don't want to damage the floor yeah it's also good to have a nice pad to work on okay which works out great for me you know normally I don't wear my Prosthetics when I work out be nice and soft yeah to scoot around on all right so then we'll put a nice rubber pad on this whole area nice now this is a good wall right here we can mount a couple of good pieces of equipment right to the wall now I'm thinking on this wall right here we'll put a mirror that's probably 120 inches by 72 inches with a nice big piece of equipment right in the middle of the floor so pad on the concrete equipment hung off of that wall mirror hung off of this one and then equipment spread throughout sound like a reasonable plan to you sounds good to me all right all right let's get some stuff and get started all right Kevin here's the padding I'm thinking about using on the floor it's actually a rubber pad to get it at the Home Center has these interlocking pieces and also it has this nice strip right here that you can remove when you're locking the pieces together in the field but it makes a nice smooth edge around the perimeter okay all we have to do is start in the corner and work our way out there you go now that the floor in we're ready to hang the mirror and to do that we're actually going to use these two pieces of metal strip and it's actually a j channel but two different size JS the smaller one will go on the bottom the taller one will go on the top so when we take the mirror and slide it up into the taller one and drop it back down there'll still be enough mirror to hang in there so it doesn't fall forward and I'm just going to screw these to the wall screw them to the wall right there back in I'm going to drag I'm gonna take it back your way yep back in wait a minute good okay Bo the mats are down and the mirror is up what do you think so far I think it looks awesome all right so we're going to start installing the equipment and the first piece is this chin up bar which we're going to screw right to the studs behind that drywall we just got to figure out how high it goes um how are you gonna use it well I don't use my uh Prosthetics when I usually work out so I think if I get down on my knees it'll give us the best height all right then I'll hold it against the wall and Mark it right now it's it's an adjustable height so right now highest position possible tell us what about that I think that's a good height right there and let's take some measurements from that oh yeah that'll hold anybody okay Tommy who's the next piece all right just line it up with those screws and that's where the studs will be foreign cable we got the equipment in we got several things for strength training but you mentioned that cardio is obviously a challenge for you so we've got this machine right here to be honest with you I'm not quite sure how you're going to use it well this machine a lot of the guys on our uh our team have it it's it's a good tool for uh sled hockey players in training it's usually meant for cross-country skiers but because it's just a good way to get cardio and get a good workout here yeah it's like the ski pole action yeah exactly all right that is in chin up bar uh to the height you requested I got a couple pins right here and you can adjust all the way down to this level whatever works that's great and then you got the combo here you got free weights weights are already on right there you got another chin up bar you can do some pull downs and you can do some curls from this one right here that should pretty much keep you in business yeah this is all awesome I can't thank you guys enough for coming out here to Montana doing all this for me you know what was absolutely our pleasure so least you could do for all you've done for us thank you well my name is Maro henrique I'm the painter for the This Old House TV show and ask this old house but I also have my business going out there I was born in Sao Paulo Brazil but now I live in Boston and I love it because when I start I start or the um a carpenter Apprentice or helper I also help in this Carpenter but then one day the paint didn't show up and my boss said we need to get this house done the guy said can you paint she said I can't try and then I did good and that night I went home and I said to my wife I think I like painting it's fun and you know I can get a lot of work done and I'm happy I'm just happy to see the room done in one day or two days and that's when I start painting there's a lot of things involved when you paint in a room when you paint for someone else you know everybody likes different colors and everybody likes to get the room done or whatever the painting project done as fast as you can but a lot of people don't realize that for them to be happy what I'm doing it takes a little time it takes few steps to get into it and to get what they expect colors are the funny thing if they ask me I say you know this call is going to do this this and that for this room is that what you're looking for people said oh I love this color a darker color into a room that you don't have um enough lighting enough light Breaking Through the Windows where we have a skylight most of the times you're gonna size down that room by using a darker color nobody wants to size down the room and color does that a lot so people must they love the color but sometimes they could use that color somewhere else if you are not happy right away trust me believe me you're not going to be happy later like you said oh I'll get used to it oh I'll get through that but I think I'm not sure about but that not sure about means I don't like it and that means you're not gonna like it later so that's how Color Works it's a very particular kind of thing it's a personal thing I love greens and I love Blues those are those are the nice colors that's all colors that you see out there on nature see a lot of Blues and you see a lot of greens that's what I like Shelby thanks for coming right thanks for having me fireplace yep all right this is it so my husband and I bought this house a few years ago and we've just been updating the fireplace a little at a time sure we put in our new mantle some drywall and I painted this cement brick that was on it all right okay which I don't mind by the way because I know when you move into a new house everybody's got a punch list so you take care of the important things first and in the fireplace the mantle some of the stuff that has to wait and maybe get painted just like this so I'm fine with that I do see the yellow fire brick all that means to me is your fireplace is working very well is that correct it's working great we love it and it keeps the room nice and warm all right so the fireplace works great that's a plus you have an awesome mantle so that's another plus if we either apply something that to this or strip it down but what were you thinking uh in terms of a finish for this I was hoping to cover it with some kind of stone to make it look a little more updated than just the paint that I had used sure all right well today might be a lucky day because I think I have something outside that might be just perfect for this awesome all right I'm gonna go get it okay sounds good thanks all right so just to give you a little vocabulary this is our mantle everything that you're looking at is the bricks around on the floors The Hearth and inside is the Firebox okay this is the material that we're going to use on the Hearth I happen to love it it's blue stone it goes great outside it goes great inside very authentic look the material that we're going to use for the surround is right here this is a stacked stone veneer it's a manufactured Stone so it's man-made it's not a natural stone but once it's up you're going to see how great it really looks awesome the best part about that stacked stone is you see this corner piece that's what we're going to use to wrap right around our fireplace so when you look this way or you look that way it's going to look like a full piece we'll we'll give it that authentic look awesome all right so why don't we get going sounds good all right so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to put in the wire over the surround so if you want to just grab that bring it up tight actually just line up the bottom because we've already measured this we should be good there so why don't you pick up this drill I'll hold the wire in place and hit that joint take that as we tap this Anchor It expands inside and that's what's going to grab the wire great and again we want to keep the wire tight but not bouncy okay all right well now it's time for our stucco coat which is actually called a scratch coat so this is a notch trowel just to apply the stucco we're going to want to push it into this wire lav and we're going to do it with this side but to develop a scratch coat once we have the stucco coat on the entire fireplace we're going to drag our notches across and that's what makes it a scratch coat okay all right so right now stucco and I'm just gonna take it throw it like that I'm going down to the bottom see how I have the trowel at an angle that's going to allow me to push the material into the wire okay so as you get it you want to drive it in and then pull it out all right take your trowel want to reapply and take a shot okay all right and you use that trowel any way that you feel comfortable but you have to watch the slide right yeah give it to you again Shelby but work your way towards me yep excellent great and we're going to let it set up for a second and then we'll come back with the trial and that way we'll get it smooth so right now all you're worried about is application and get it right through that wire in this type S if we're doing brick work we use a Type n exactly go all the way up there great don't be afraid to turn your trowel and come yes go right onto the mantle you're natural all right we're gonna let this dry for a minute so let's focus on the Hearth we both like the blue stone so that's why we know we're going that way but the first thing we have to do is strip off the old Hearth so what I'm going to do is I'm going to start on this head joint right here you can start on that one all we're going to do is try to pound it out and then just weaken this brick and then we're going to pop them one right after the other all right all right let's go foreign now let's get under that brick all right you're in I'm in first pieces out keep yep you got it great the paint is actually holding the brick together all right so now we're ready for the first piece of blue stone what we have to do is spread the mortar so if you take that spread it into these Deep Pockets first I'll move it around yep that's great uh and as you can see I want to drive it into all the nooks and crannies so we make sure we have a very tight Bond so you can see me bounce this little margin travel around that's going to fluff that mortar up so when the weight of the stone hits the top part of that monitor we're going to be able to wiggle it right into the height that we want awesome maybe on the corner yeah here's another little uh bit of info the reason you see me butter up against that fire brick is because every time I see a fireplace settle it's always between the Hearth and the Firebox it opens up that joint and that is a nasty place for an ember or an ash to get that could possibly start a fire okay so anytime I'm putting down a hearth I always make sure that this joint is tight tight tight and that's what I'm doing when i'm pressing in with the small margin travel all right all right how are we gonna put this down so I don't crush my fingers yeah well that's why we loaded up the mortar bed because you're just going to gently low it bring it in to your mark I'm good on mine yep right but now I want you to wiggle back and forth just a little bit what we're doing right now is we're making sure we have a great Bond we don't want a a good Bond we want a great Bond we want to maintain a quarter inch between the Firebox and our Stone are you on your line yep all right what do we have right there and there we go as long as you're on your mark over there I am all right well we got this guy set let's get to that piece over there yep great so I'm going to do the same thing that I did with the fire brick I'm going to drag this mortar up tight against the blue stone while I'm doing that I'm also tucking it under just in case I missed something when we laid that but again that's going to ensure that we get the full masonry joint in between the two pieces of stone okay so there's your end and again just walk it in we know we have it tight we want our Edge make sure I see that corner that's the most important corner of that stone and now boom boom boom all right let's just get the back of these Stones wet because it's a manufactured Stone it's going to suck all the water out of the water so to alleviate that problem what we do is we just wet the back of the Stone that water will be absorbed by the material and that's when we tack it onto the wall start over here always hit in the middle because if you hit high you're going to roll it so just in the middle is great foreign thing that we always want to avoid is joint over joint so we want to make sure that the course on top of that does not hit either one of those joints okay and so it'll look more natural more random and more natural yeah foreign just to do due diligence what we're going to do is cut up some two by fours and put it under that stone we'll leave it there for an hour yeah once we place these in here you can't even tell that we cut them thinner than the other ones right that's the beauty of this product all right Shelby what do you think unbelievable it ties in the mantle that we did with the fireplace it just looks unreal I'm so excited thank you so much all right well you're welcome thanks for having me out foreign on ask This Old House now you're probably doing more projects yourself from your own house this year well so are we and we thought it would be fun to show you the projects that our experts are working on from their own homes we did a built-in desk area custom tops and floating shelves it came out really nice and when we were decorating it finishing it up you know I wanted to display my grandfather's flag that I had received a few years back I've always wanted to make a display case for it thank youtoday on ask This Old House we'll head to Montana to build a special space for one of America's bravest well I don't use my uh Prosthetics when I usually work out so I think if I get down on my knees it'll give us the best height I think that's a good height right there let's take some measurements from that this car is going to do this this and that for this room is that what you're looking for nobody wants to size down the room and color does that a lot if they say yeah that's what I'm looking for and if you're happy I'm happy and I'll show you how to update the look of a wood burning fireplace it just looks unreal I'm so excited thank you so much all right well you're welcome Montana is called Big Sky country for a reason the vast landscape and panoramic views extend for hundreds of miles here today to meet bo richen back Beau grew up in this area and he chose a service country as a Navy Seal in Afghanistan we've been in this Village a couple times and the previous time we went in there there was huge fire fights you know it was just it was chaos in this Village and two of the guys stepped on the pressure plate in front of me and I stepped on it and uh and boom yeah I woke up looked up and saw that my left leg was gone and then my right arm I took a lot of shrapnel on the inside of my arm foreign s my whole life was to build a home for myself and for my family I knew that'd be a good good part in my rehab and his father a general contractor built this house from the ground up had some help from building for America's bravest a program of the Steven sealer tunnel the towers Foundation this nonprofit organization builds mortgage-free homes for injured veterans our goal from the beginning was us building the home I mean you're literally out here throwing in I was involved with the framing trim I pretty much did all the base work in the house not wearing my legs for a day and Scoot around on my butt each home includes adaptive and Smart Home Technology makes it nice and easy for me to kind of get on with the day the cabinets that lower out the bottom oh wow look at that oh that is cool I'm able to get stuff off the top shelf the stove it actually lowers down so when I'm cooking in my wheelchair I'm able to uh be above the food and so that none of the food ever splatters on my face or anything I can do everything in this house and there's there's nothing in this house I can't do that gives you the opportunity to explore different things in life I grew up playing hockey from the time I was four years old and I didn't find out until five months into my rehab that uh there was a sport called sled hockey three years later now I'm on Team USA which I can't be any happier than you know to represent your country in another way again for me but training to be an Olympic athlete in rural Montana comes with its challenges at one point I was a part of a gym here in town but that's a ends up being a 40-minute drive both ways just to go to the gym and get back and living out here in the country that's kind of made it difficult so you know one of the things that we don't have here that I'd like and need is the home gym well it's nice that you've got this attached to the hot space though yeah I plan on using most of it as a workshop and then uh this corner I want to do a gym all right finally been doing some measuring what do you think yeah I think this is a good corner to put the gym in we've got 16 feet here all the way to the corner yeah and then if I measure from the corner out to the garage door we got a little over 11 feet but wants to keep it back a little bit so that will make this area for the gym about 10 feet by 16 feet that work for you yeah I think it's gonna be great all right so what about the floor tom this is pretty good looking garage floor it's a beautiful garage floor but unfortunately when you're working out with weights you know you may drop the weights you don't want to damage the floor yeah it's also good to have a nice pad to work on okay which works out great for me you know normally I don't wear my Prosthetics when I work out be nice and soft yeah to scoot around on all right so then we'll put a nice rubber pad on this whole area nice now this is a good wall right here we can mount a couple of good pieces of equipment right to the wall now I'm thinking on this wall right here we'll put a mirror that's probably 120 inches by 72 inches with a nice big piece of equipment right in the middle of the floor so pad on the concrete equipment hung off of that wall mirror hung off of this one and then equipment spread throughout sound like a reasonable plan to you sounds good to me all right all right let's get some stuff and get started all right Kevin here's the padding I'm thinking about using on the floor it's actually a rubber pad to get it at the Home Center has these interlocking pieces and also it has this nice strip right here that you can remove when you're locking the pieces together in the field but it makes a nice smooth edge around the perimeter okay all we have to do is start in the corner and work our way out there you go now that the floor in we're ready to hang the mirror and to do that we're actually going to use these two pieces of metal strip and it's actually a j channel but two different size JS the smaller one will go on the bottom the taller one will go on the top so when we take the mirror and slide it up into the taller one and drop it back down there'll still be enough mirror to hang in there so it doesn't fall forward and I'm just going to screw these to the wall screw them to the wall right there back in I'm going to drag I'm gonna take it back your way yep back in wait a minute good okay Bo the mats are down and the mirror is up what do you think so far I think it looks awesome all right so we're going to start installing the equipment and the first piece is this chin up bar which we're going to screw right to the studs behind that drywall we just got to figure out how high it goes um how are you gonna use it well I don't use my uh Prosthetics when I usually work out so I think if I get down on my knees it'll give us the best height all right then I'll hold it against the wall and Mark it right now it's it's an adjustable height so right now highest position possible tell us what about that I think that's a good height right there and let's take some measurements from that oh yeah that'll hold anybody okay Tommy who's the next piece all right just line it up with those screws and that's where the studs will be foreign cable we got the equipment in we got several things for strength training but you mentioned that cardio is obviously a challenge for you so we've got this machine right here to be honest with you I'm not quite sure how you're going to use it well this machine a lot of the guys on our uh our team have it it's it's a good tool for uh sled hockey players in training it's usually meant for cross-country skiers but because it's just a good way to get cardio and get a good workout here yeah it's like the ski pole action yeah exactly all right that is in chin up bar uh to the height you requested I got a couple pins right here and you can adjust all the way down to this level whatever works that's great and then you got the combo here you got free weights weights are already on right there you got another chin up bar you can do some pull downs and you can do some curls from this one right here that should pretty much keep you in business yeah this is all awesome I can't thank you guys enough for coming out here to Montana doing all this for me you know what was absolutely our pleasure so least you could do for all you've done for us thank you well my name is Maro henrique I'm the painter for the This Old House TV show and ask this old house but I also have my business going out there I was born in Sao Paulo Brazil but now I live in Boston and I love it because when I start I start or the um a carpenter Apprentice or helper I also help in this Carpenter but then one day the paint didn't show up and my boss said we need to get this house done the guy said can you paint she said I can't try and then I did good and that night I went home and I said to my wife I think I like painting it's fun and you know I can get a lot of work done and I'm happy I'm just happy to see the room done in one day or two days and that's when I start painting there's a lot of things involved when you paint in a room when you paint for someone else you know everybody likes different colors and everybody likes to get the room done or whatever the painting project done as fast as you can but a lot of people don't realize that for them to be happy what I'm doing it takes a little time it takes few steps to get into it and to get what they expect colors are the funny thing if they ask me I say you know this call is going to do this this and that for this room is that what you're looking for people said oh I love this color a darker color into a room that you don't have um enough lighting enough light Breaking Through the Windows where we have a skylight most of the times you're gonna size down that room by using a darker color nobody wants to size down the room and color does that a lot so people must they love the color but sometimes they could use that color somewhere else if you are not happy right away trust me believe me you're not going to be happy later like you said oh I'll get used to it oh I'll get through that but I think I'm not sure about but that not sure about means I don't like it and that means you're not gonna like it later so that's how Color Works it's a very particular kind of thing it's a personal thing I love greens and I love Blues those are those are the nice colors that's all colors that you see out there on nature see a lot of Blues and you see a lot of greens that's what I like Shelby thanks for coming right thanks for having me fireplace yep all right this is it so my husband and I bought this house a few years ago and we've just been updating the fireplace a little at a time sure we put in our new mantle some drywall and I painted this cement brick that was on it all right okay which I don't mind by the way because I know when you move into a new house everybody's got a punch list so you take care of the important things first and in the fireplace the mantle some of the stuff that has to wait and maybe get painted just like this so I'm fine with that I do see the yellow fire brick all that means to me is your fireplace is working very well is that correct it's working great we love it and it keeps the room nice and warm all right so the fireplace works great that's a plus you have an awesome mantle so that's another plus if we either apply something that to this or strip it down but what were you thinking uh in terms of a finish for this I was hoping to cover it with some kind of stone to make it look a little more updated than just the paint that I had used sure all right well today might be a lucky day because I think I have something outside that might be just perfect for this awesome all right I'm gonna go get it okay sounds good thanks all right so just to give you a little vocabulary this is our mantle everything that you're looking at is the bricks around on the floors The Hearth and inside is the Firebox okay this is the material that we're going to use on the Hearth I happen to love it it's blue stone it goes great outside it goes great inside very authentic look the material that we're going to use for the surround is right here this is a stacked stone veneer it's a manufactured Stone so it's man-made it's not a natural stone but once it's up you're going to see how great it really looks awesome the best part about that stacked stone is you see this corner piece that's what we're going to use to wrap right around our fireplace so when you look this way or you look that way it's going to look like a full piece we'll we'll give it that authentic look awesome all right so why don't we get going sounds good all right so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to put in the wire over the surround so if you want to just grab that bring it up tight actually just line up the bottom because we've already measured this we should be good there so why don't you pick up this drill I'll hold the wire in place and hit that joint take that as we tap this Anchor It expands inside and that's what's going to grab the wire great and again we want to keep the wire tight but not bouncy okay all right well now it's time for our stucco coat which is actually called a scratch coat so this is a notch trowel just to apply the stucco we're going to want to push it into this wire lav and we're going to do it with this side but to develop a scratch coat once we have the stucco coat on the entire fireplace we're going to drag our notches across and that's what makes it a scratch coat okay all right so right now stucco and I'm just gonna take it throw it like that I'm going down to the bottom see how I have the trowel at an angle that's going to allow me to push the material into the wire okay so as you get it you want to drive it in and then pull it out all right take your trowel want to reapply and take a shot okay all right and you use that trowel any way that you feel comfortable but you have to watch the slide right yeah give it to you again Shelby but work your way towards me yep excellent great and we're going to let it set up for a second and then we'll come back with the trial and that way we'll get it smooth so right now all you're worried about is application and get it right through that wire in this type S if we're doing brick work we use a Type n exactly go all the way up there great don't be afraid to turn your trowel and come yes go right onto the mantle you're natural all right we're gonna let this dry for a minute so let's focus on the Hearth we both like the blue stone so that's why we know we're going that way but the first thing we have to do is strip off the old Hearth so what I'm going to do is I'm going to start on this head joint right here you can start on that one all we're going to do is try to pound it out and then just weaken this brick and then we're going to pop them one right after the other all right all right let's go foreign now let's get under that brick all right you're in I'm in first pieces out keep yep you got it great the paint is actually holding the brick together all right so now we're ready for the first piece of blue stone what we have to do is spread the mortar so if you take that spread it into these Deep Pockets first I'll move it around yep that's great uh and as you can see I want to drive it into all the nooks and crannies so we make sure we have a very tight Bond so you can see me bounce this little margin travel around that's going to fluff that mortar up so when the weight of the stone hits the top part of that monitor we're going to be able to wiggle it right into the height that we want awesome maybe on the corner yeah here's another little uh bit of info the reason you see me butter up against that fire brick is because every time I see a fireplace settle it's always between the Hearth and the Firebox it opens up that joint and that is a nasty place for an ember or an ash to get that could possibly start a fire okay so anytime I'm putting down a hearth I always make sure that this joint is tight tight tight and that's what I'm doing when i'm pressing in with the small margin travel all right all right how are we gonna put this down so I don't crush my fingers yeah well that's why we loaded up the mortar bed because you're just going to gently low it bring it in to your mark I'm good on mine yep right but now I want you to wiggle back and forth just a little bit what we're doing right now is we're making sure we have a great Bond we don't want a a good Bond we want a great Bond we want to maintain a quarter inch between the Firebox and our Stone are you on your line yep all right what do we have right there and there we go as long as you're on your mark over there I am all right well we got this guy set let's get to that piece over there yep great so I'm going to do the same thing that I did with the fire brick I'm going to drag this mortar up tight against the blue stone while I'm doing that I'm also tucking it under just in case I missed something when we laid that but again that's going to ensure that we get the full masonry joint in between the two pieces of stone okay so there's your end and again just walk it in we know we have it tight we want our Edge make sure I see that corner that's the most important corner of that stone and now boom boom boom all right let's just get the back of these Stones wet because it's a manufactured Stone it's going to suck all the water out of the water so to alleviate that problem what we do is we just wet the back of the Stone that water will be absorbed by the material and that's when we tack it onto the wall start over here always hit in the middle because if you hit high you're going to roll it so just in the middle is great foreign thing that we always want to avoid is joint over joint so we want to make sure that the course on top of that does not hit either one of those joints okay and so it'll look more natural more random and more natural yeah foreign just to do due diligence what we're going to do is cut up some two by fours and put it under that stone we'll leave it there for an hour yeah once we place these in here you can't even tell that we cut them thinner than the other ones right that's the beauty of this product all right Shelby what do you think unbelievable it ties in the mantle that we did with the fireplace it just looks unreal I'm so excited thank you so much all right well you're welcome thanks for having me out foreign on ask This Old House now you're probably doing more projects yourself from your own house this year well so are we and we thought it would be fun to show you the projects that our experts are working on from their own homes we did a built-in desk area custom tops and floating shelves it came out really nice and when we were decorating it finishing it up you know I wanted to display my grandfather's flag that I had received a few years back I've always wanted to make a display case for it thank you\n"