Fireplace: Ahhhh....paint

I'm making some progress on the ol' fireplace project! I love the painting phase of any project. That always seems the moment when everything comes together. When the little picture becomes the big picture. And it was certainly that way with this project. Look at the difference one coat of paint made on the mantel compared to the rest of the surround?

I finished the first coat on the rest of the surround, and stepped back so my dog could inspect my work. She's a tough task master.

With the poochie's approval, I applied a second coat of paint. And that's when my heart got really happy. This surround that I had Frankenstein-ed together with scraps and bits leftover from previous projects (supplemented with a few trips to Lowes) finally looked like a legit fireplace surround. YES!!

That's all I have for today! But start getting excited, because my next step is to start tiling and I CANNOT WAIT!!! I'm so excited!
Cheers!