Fireplace Plus Dog = Project
We live in what they call a rambler in Maryland. It’s like a ranch but smaller. There is no entry way, you walk into the living room which my mom says means it’s a cottage. Our house was built in 1955 and we bought it as a “starter home” in 2012. Fourteen years later, we are still here. We have true community on our street; it is a hard place to leave.
In 2022 we had dreams of adding a second story, but they were dashed by the reality of the costs and for once in our lives making a sound financial decision. So we did a small bump out and put in a new kitchen and two new bathrooms. Our youngest moved into a basement bedroom. (That was a terrible idea! High school student in the basement?! 0 out of 10, do not recommend.) And we finally repaired our non-working fireplace. I went to Facebook Market Place to find andirons and a screen. I found a screen that slid open which I thought would be perfect, because in a tiny house there is no room to move a screen out of way when adding logs to the fire.
This is where Cassie the terrible enters the scene. Our Pitbull / Huskey mix gets into everything and has never seen a stick that she doesn’t want to eat. I could have (should have?) anticipated that a fireplace with chard wood would be her version of heaven and that a slidable fire screen could not stop her from getting into the fireplace to eat them. (She looks sweet here, but trust me, she is terrible.)
One of the items mom was known for was a hand painted fireplace screen. She made them for our house, for friends, and donated them to charity auctions. They were made from cut plywood (dog proof) and often whimsical scenes that would make you smile. I needed one but mom didn’t seem to have any extra. And I couldn’t ask her to make me one because 1. using a saw was no longer a good idea for her, and 2. her painting skill deteriorated as “Parkinson’s Plus” advanced. I was on my own and the results show that.
I was inspired by these screens, got a canvas the size of our fireplace, and made a free hand version (as in the chevron is not consistent). I used a green paint that I had which didn’t match any of the other greens in the house. While the design was lacking, it was functional. I could keep Cassie the terrible out of the fireplace and it was easy enough to move a lightweight canvas when we did want a fire. We lived with it for awhile. Of all the things that were wrong with this version, it was the non-matching green that bothered me the most. Our kitchen cabinets came with a repair paint pen, so I took that to Ace and had it color matched. I started over.
This time the green is right, but the chevron pattern is still wonky. I made the black lines thicker to try to hide that, as you can see, it didn’t work. At some point I’ll have to try again or accept that I need to buy something else to keep the dog away from the chard remains of our fires. I’ll keep you posted on which one comes first.