My wife and I live in townhouse in a condominium complex called Crown Harbor.

Constructed about 30 years ago, aptly named, and by the San Francisco Bay, the Crown Harbor units have a nautical feel. One design element is a round window that resembles a boat's port hole. There are two of them — one upstairs and one downstairs.

A second design element is that the fireplaces have round flue pipes that add to the nautical appeal. Here is a picture of our home when it was for sale by the previous owners:

Although nautical in nature, the problem is that the flues block the view through the round window. Five years ago when we moved in, we replaced the fireplace downstairs with a direct vent model so its flue could be removed, so it now looks like:

Recently we decided to do the same thing for the fireplace in our master bedroom. Marzolf Brothers Construction was our general contractor for our home remodel 5 years ago. We were more than satisfied with their work, so we hired them for this job too. Here is the BEFORE picture for our upstairs fireplace:

The upstairs fireplace replacement job involved several steps.

1. Get a building permit.

   One would think that this would be relatively inexpensive for such a small job. The city of Alameda charges $468.89 for the privilege of swapping out one fireplace for another.

2. Remove the existing fireplace and both flues.

   

   There were actually 2 pipes in our bedroom. One for the fireplace downstairs which was rendered obsolete 5 years ago when we swapped out the downstairs fireplace, and a second one for the fireplace in the master bedroom itself.

3. Close the ceiling where the flue pipes used to be.

   

   The ceiling patches can be textured and painted later in case the project requires re-entering these spaces before completion.

4. Remove the floor tile.

   Repositioning the fireplace from the middle of the room to against the wall required that the gas line be moved. So the tile floor had to come up to be able to move the gas line. This is why this job was not done 5 years earlier. We did not want to mess with the flooring back then.

5. Move the gas line.

   

   This was a rather painless process. The gas line only needed to be moved about 40 inches from the middle of the room to near the wall.

6. Build a box.

   

   Framing was added to hold the new fireplace. The space was just deep enough to hold the new fireplace. When I say "just deep enough," I mean it. We considered shortening its depth by one-half inch so tiles on the resulting face would not need finished edges, but just that half inch would have made the box not big enough. As a result, the framed box lines up with the edges of the adjacent walls.

   

7. Install new fireplace and vent to the outside.

   

   We purchased our fireplace from Kidd Fireplace & Spa. They are located on Lesser street in Oakland. Trust me when I say that if you enter Lester street into your GPS on your first visit to their showroom, you will wind up on the other side of town. In addition to procuring the unit, Kidd also performed the installation. They were really busy, so it took some time between when the box was built and when they could install the fireplace. We waited in anxious anticipation.

8. Have the installation of the gas line and electrical approved by the building inspector from the city of Alameda.

   This was easier said than done. The original installation included a shut-off valve and a junction box that would eventually be walled in.

   

   Despite having a second gas shut-off valve that was accessible from underneath the fireplace, any inaccessible one does not meet code. The same is true for the electrical. The guys from Kidd Fireplace made a second trip to our house and spent 2 more hours to make it right.

   

   The electrical is now accessible via a plate that is outside.

   

   Based on a good catch by our general contractor (Marzolf Brothers), Kidd Fireplace corrected this the day before the inspector came, so this step has a happy ending. The inspection passed!

9. Hardiboard the fireplace.

   

   HardiBoard is a brand name for fiber cement material manufactured by James Hardie Building Products. The fiber cement boards are made from Portland cement mixed with ground sand, cellulose fiber, and other additives. It is fire resistant.

10. Have the installation of the hardiboard approved by the building inspector from the city of Alameda.

    This was easily done. The inspector told me that having the carpet flush with the fireplace would not be a problem. That makes tiling easier and carpet laying less expensive.

11. Pick out tile for the fireplace.

    

    This was more challenging than expected because there were so many choices. Luckily the folks at Cal Tile on Park Street in Alameda were very helpful. The selection process was a little more complicated because quarterround pieces were needed because the hardiboard extends three-eighths of an inch past the neighboring wall. We needed a tile set that included something that could wrap and hide the edges of the fireplace.

    

    The edging issue could have been avoided if the fireplace box could have been a half-inch less in depth; however, had we done that, the new fireplace would not have fit.

12. Texture the ceiling.

    

    This was done over a two day process. The night that the protective plastic stayed up, and we slept in that room, I wondered if that was how Dexter got his start. Aware that I have seen all seasons of Dexter, I think Sheryl slept with one eye open.

    

13. Paint the ceiling.

    

    To save money, Sheryl and I did this part ourselves.

14. Hang the cornice.

    

    Our neighbors, Gene and Peggy McDermott, remodeled their bedroom (same floor plan as ours) and gave us their old cornices. With the pipe formerly in the way, we could not use the one above the round window. That is no longer the case.

15. Tile the fireplace.

    

    

    Since our flat tile was not available with a bull nose edge, we used quarter round pieces on the sides and top of the front. The accent tile row gives the fireplace a little pizzazz,

16. Have the installation of the gas line and electrical approved by the building inspector from the city of Alameda.

    This was more of a formality than anything. No issues.

17. Get new carpet installed.

    

    To replace the flooring where the old tile used to be, we had our entire upstairs recarpeted. We could have just retiled that little square area and put in a stripper pole instead, but Sheryl was having no part of that.

    Here's a tip.

    

    If you are going to have your stairs recarpeted, remove the old carpet yourself, paint the stairway, and then have the carpet installers install the new carpet. Alas I did not think of that. Now I get to carefully paint the stairway where the old paint shows without spilling on the new carpet. That's a project for next week.

We are happy with the results. It turned out great. The fireplace has a remote, and a built-in fan so it can be used to heat our bedroom on cold nights without having to fire up the central heating to warm the entire house.

This is not an inexpensive process. You can see why it took 5 years for us to save up for this.

Kidd Fireplace even made a complimentary house call when I inadvertently knocked a flame-detector wire loose while working underneath the fireplace. Lesson learned. Thanks guys!

Fire is alive in the lab.