2008_04_29 Fireplace, boxes of Bolivian Rosewood

Here is the frame for the fireplace in the great room. Note the little box in the lower left corner of the picture. That is a built-in box where all the cables for DirecTV, DVRs, DVDs, and VCR come up from the basement to go to the various pieces of equipment and then back into the wall and come out behind the TV above the fireplace. The top part of this is set back from where the front edge of the fireplace will be but away from the wall. So, the hearth is at one position, the fireplace at another (and the mantel will stick out a few inches past it), then the section with the TV above the mantel will be a foot or so farther back. The rock on the fireplace will go all the way to the ceiling.



Here is one of 3 large stacks of boxes of Bolivian Rosewood flooring presently awaiting installation. There is a total of 11,500 pounds of it so this is probably between 3,000 and 4,000 lbs of it stacked in the loft. It gives me some degree of assurance that the loft's not likely to cave in should we put some heavy furniture up there!

You can see below the view of the fireplace construction from the loft area. It's easier to see how far the hearth, firebox, mantel area, and area above the fireplace where the TV will be mounted are away from the wall.

The supports for the mantel are all 4 x 8s so it's substantial to say the least! There also are going to be more large vertical pieces put in between the studs where the TV will be mounted. When Steve measured the TV mount it became clear that the 4 x 8s there now aren't wide enough from top to bottom due to the size of the mount.

The mount I bought is really overkill since it will allow a 150 lb TV to tilt, swivel, and, if necessary, to be pulled out 22 inches away from the wall should it need to be adjusted due glare, to allow it to be seen from the loft (if I should want to watch it while working on the computer that will be in the corner up there), or, more realistically, to access any of the wires or cables behind it without having to take it down! I would not be able to do that myself so I am keeping the mount even though a less substantial one would have been adequate for most viewing purposes.

The picture below shows just a few pieces of the Bolivian Rosewood flooring out of the box. It is 5 inches wide and random lengths. It is a full 3/4 of an inch thick and prefinished at the factory. It's hard to tell the color from this photo, but it's pretty close to what you see. It's quite heavy and very, very hard since it's much harder than oak. One source showed the hardness to be 141 percent as hard as red oak (which is the wood that most hardwood providers seem to compare other woods to when trying to give you an indication of how hard it is).