When we put a wall up along an alcove area in our basement, to make an actual office space in our garganteuos basement living room we left rough ins for a fireplace in the corner.  Our house is a split level home that we built just over 4 years ago and I was honestly surprised at how it can be a little chilly in the winter downstairs.  I guess I thought since it was so new and efficient this would not be the case, but when part of your house in the dirt, I guess this is bound to happen.

So here is a snippet of the star of our fireplace DIY…the plan is to have stone up to the ceiling with a wooden mantle, inspired somewhat by this photo (hopefully a little less cabin-y):

We are slowly adding more details and characteristic to our house, although we built it with some extra touches that we feel added more character than a standard build we have found we are still missing that “us” feel, I am hoping this fireplace will give the basement some warmth and character.

First step….get a permit to complete this project!!  I was fanatical about this, especially since this will be a gas fireplace, I do not want this to be done improperly and jeopardize anything or anyone, plus if we decide to sell and there are no permits on record we could have to pay to have it all redone, don’t skip this step, it is very important.

Second once we knew what was code for the fireplace we bought we went ahead and framed out the spot in 2 X 4’s.  Jon made the openings in the wall and ceiling  and then we called for a gas line hook-up and inspection this line.  The gas line was the only part of this project that we hired out.  again we had no intention of taking any chances when it came to safety.  The total cost was $164.00 not to bad for safety!

Midway update here