As you may have noticed, we have four very beautifully ornate fireplaces in our home! They are gorgeous, but none of them work!
Living Room Fireplace Pre-Heater
Both the living room and dining room fireplaces had gas lines to them though! The night of the very, very cold day in our house during the house tour, I went over to our friends house across the street to warm up. They had just installed an old gas heater that they had had restored and installed a gas line to their fireplace. I sat next to it and warmed my toes and it felt just like I was sitting next to a crackling fire. That was all I needed! The hunt began!
Luckily, Rodney was even more enthralled with the idea than I was so he was the hunter! Ebay, Craig's List, stopping at antique stores along the way home from a trip to Louisiana. One day, while I was out Christmas shopping, he headed over to an antique store in Lewisville, Texas and he found two really great heaters, both perfect for the spaces where we had the gas lines.
Living Room Heater Pre-Restored
Dining Room Heater Pre-Restored
But they needed work both cosmetically and we needed to make sure they were safe. We had a plumber come check the safety of the existing gas lines (they were perfect) and our friends had paved the way and they had a gentleman just a few miles from us that specialized in restoring old gas heaters. We had to decide what color in a High Heat spray paint (not a ton of choices) we would like the grids on both painted and the base of the rusted out Living Room Heater.
We dropped them off several weeks ago and yesterday I got a call from Albert, the gentleman, who restored the heaters. He was done and wanted to know if I would like him to drop them off and hook them up! Well yes! Not only would it be a fun surprise for Rodney who was in flight home, but it was getting quite chilly out.
On the Dining Room heater, Albert had polished up the brass, painted the grid metallic silver and had lubed and restored any of the parts that were faulty. He hooked it up and fire and heat! Albert told me he had looked it up and that it was a 1930's "Ironton" Heater.
Living Room Heater Post-Restoration
Grid-Silver
Base a metallic bronze
Enjoying this late February morning in the Family Room with my cup of coffee and my gas heater "heating things up!" And apparently, tomorrow will go to the 70's, so won't need it then! Perhaps, in March or perhaps again next fall? No telling what Texas whether holds!
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Absolutely LOVE the restored fireplace! What a fabulous project! We tried the same and it took a lot longer... wish we had an "Albert" to help us with the knowledge and information! Not only functional, but retro, quaint and looks great in your home. Lovely to see projects like this, to gain ideas, tips and contacts that we can utilise.
Lovella Cushman @ Perfection Plumbing