Light My Fire!

Fireplace #1 is up and not yet running, much to miniTessie's dismay.

It isn't even glued in place and she and Big Tessie want to see if it works.

You saw the rough cut of the fireplaces with one thickness of foam core yesterday.

I filled them out with another thickness today.

I glued the two layers together and backed them with a piece of cardboard.  Then I lined the firebox with brick paper.

I found some scraps of cherry veneer and cut pieces to fit the sides and front of the column. 

I noticed, when I was doing the roof of Tessie's fortune telling booth, that the sticks in the blind were grooved on one side and they looked like very fine double bead molding.  Much nicer for 1/4" than the real thing....The finest that you can get in that is 1/32".  This is smaller.

I cut a piece of the leftover fan blades from the Russian cottage and used it for carving on the front panel.

Surrounded that with the molding and did some more lines with it at the corners and up the sides of the firebox. 

I cut a piece of the cardboard for the foundation and covered it with the same paper as the firebox.

Not too bad for a couple of hour's work.  I am now trying to decide whether to leave it as is or try to stain it and really mess it up.  It's too late to paint it to match the walls....One of those "No way. No how!" situations.  Look at all of those tiny holes!

I still have another one to do for the other big room on the top floor.  Then the next question is, how realistic do I want to get?  Do I have to put chimneys on the roof too?  Magical fireplaces with fires that don't need chimneys?  After all, if we are getting real, the chimneys would have to be taller than the tower, to prevent fire hazards.

See you tomorrow.  P. S.  Look what a coat of stain will do!