More fireplace

With the amount of care we took with this thing, you'd think we use it all the time. But we live in the desert. It's usually pretty doggone warm around here so using the fireplace sounds like a very uncomfortable idea--having one in the house seems like a waste of space.

We definitely do not use it for heat, but you'd be amazed at the ambiance it creates to burn one of those presto logs in there at Christmas, when it's 80+ degrees outside and you're wishing for cooler weather and snow. :)

The "shelf" you see is helping to hold up the tiles on the face which aren't touching the bottom tiles (because they bump out a couple inches over the bottom) so cannot be held in place by them. But the shelf is held up by the vertical boards below.

Almost done!

The two boards in the center are holding up the tiles that are on the inside lip of that inset and those are holding the tiles above. Temporary but necessary. Think house of cards.

Done! Bellisimo!