The beginning of a beautiful thing

so here's the story. josh has wanted a flat panel tv for so long. of course, like any other American man in 2009, he wanted it mounted on the wall. which meant that my beautiful, black armoire would have to find a home--in someone else's home! :( the only use we had for it in our home was to hold the tv. it was sad for me to think about saying goodbye to our first piece of furniture we bought as a married couple. sigh. josh said he would make a deal with me. i could pick choose the furniture that went under the tv. whatever i wanted.

i'm suddenly taken back to when i was 6 years old. this conversation is strangely familiar. i was in the county spelling bee in houston. dad said that if i won first place i could pick out any toy i wanted.....

josh didn't know that i concluded that i could relinquish my sadness about the armoire if i would find a wooden faux fireplace. we could not find one we liked to purchase, so josh, sweet josh, built one through many laborious hours with our friend, greg curnutte and his dad.

dad didn't know that when i won first place in the spelling bee that i would ask for a dog, either.

life is funny.

i will never forget this, josh. i love it. here is the fireplace in all its stages:

Awkward Stage

This is what we call the adolescent stage. Josh and I mutually agreed...it looked like two kids took a crayon to this baby on the first coat. This is coat 2 of the pecan...looks much better. And the black is added!

The finished product! Just needs the final decor touches of candles...will post those later! Thank you, Josh!