Fireplace excitement and disappointments

You can see traces of hand-tooling on the edges

We were delighted to find out that (for once) our geometra was wrong about something: our local art restorers had a look at the main fireplace mantel in the house, and declared that rather than (early 20th-century) cement, the fireplace was made from pietra serena. This meant that the fireplace dates to the late 1500s/early 1600s, and it is one of the remaining "original" mantels in Todi. Apparently at various points, these mantels have been sold off by their owners, making ours even rarer to find in situ.

The disappointment that we've been working on is that at some point during the construction, there were a few holes knocked into the chimney liner. This meant smoke penetration in the bathrooms (the same floor as the fireplace) and Michael's office (the attic, two stories up). Umberto and his crew have relined the lower part of the chimney, thereby resolving the bathroom situation 100% and the attic problem 85%. However, we still have to figure out the remaining smoke penetration so that Michael doesn't become a kippered herring while he is at work, while permitting us to use the fireplace as intended.

Speaking of fireplace, we also had a wood delivery...

Love,

Alexandra