I have made it be known that we want our new home to look like it’s been around forever.  So we are incorporating a few old doors in the plans, along with our old fireplace mantels.  I shared the layout here, but we will have four fireplaces in the house.  The kitchen and dining room will split one.  It will be a see-through gas log.  The one in our bedroom will be gas.  And the one in the living room will be a real wood burning fireplace.  We had a wood burning fireplace for years and miss it so much.  Yes, there will be more dust and ashes… and probably heat loss.  But, there is nothing like the smell and sounds of a real fire.  Agree?

I mentioned several months ago in our newsletter that I wanted all antique fireplace mantels.  They had to be HUGE.  We have one here at the cottage that will go over to the house.  I received an email about two 100 plus year old mantels in Tennessee that were taken from an old home.  We made a flying trip down there to grab them.  Well… we were one short.  I was searching on the Facebook Marketplace for antique mantels a few weeks back and one popped up here in Ohio.  It was an antique that was over 200 years old and 100″ long and at a great price!

200 Year Old Fireplace Mantel

The 200 year old mantel was located about 2 hours from us.  We traveled 6 1/2 hours for both of the other ones and 6 1/2 hours to grab our pantry doors in Tennessee.   Two hours seemed like a short ride!

This mantel was pulled from a home built in 1796, that was destroyed by a tornado sometime in 2012. (see above pic)  I believe the home had 5 fireplaces and anything that could be salvaged was.  The lady told me that she had sold the other ones and I believe this was the last one.  It has a bit of damage on the bottom and needs some TLC, but Deb is going to work on that.  It actually needs to be build up a bit for code, so the damage won’t matter.

I wanted to possibly strip the paint from it, but I think I am going to give it another coat.  It almost appears to be several different types of wood.  So I don’t want to go through the hassle of stripping it when painting will be easier.   Stay tuned for what we do with this gem.