Fireplace Makeover for $10!

The house I live in is also my first house. We lived here until the summer after my kindergarten year and it became a rent house. After years of renting it out, my parents offered it to me. We spent a week fixing it up (and when I say week, I mean we did nothing else for an entire week) putting in new carpet, completely remodeling the master bathroom, painting every room, some remodeling in the guest bathroom, new fans in every room, and the deepest cleaning I’ve ever done in my life.
Here is a picture of the living room when I lived here the first time.  The big ugly brass fireplace screen is something I’ve wanted to replace for a while.

At first, I didn’t think it could be done but my mom said it would pop right off (False!).  My sister, Caitlan (who is awesome and earned her woMAN card yesterday because of this) came over and we used two hammers to pry off the the screen.  We got it off pretty good but it was still attached somehow.  Caitlan had to stick her head in the nasty fireplace (that hasn’t been used or cleaned at least since I lived here) and unscrew the two massive screws that were holding the screen on.  We finally got it off.

I should have taken a picture before I cleaned….okay this is pre-clean too but we filled two trash bags of logs, ash and other crap.  Caitlan and I scrubbed the fireplace from here but there is still ash there that I just couldn’t scrub off.

This is what I wanted the fireplace to look like….such an update…and yes, I got this for $10!  It was originally silver so I spray-painted it black.  It still needs another coat but I think it rocks out and such a steal at $10.  See, I saved money by being a garage sale junkie.