Check out the library's show and tell!  Project Librar is an ongoing column featuring creations by you inspired by library books, movies, music, art, tools or services.  This week's featured project is on fireplace restoration by Scarlett...just in time for these cold snowy days we've been having lately.

"My husband and I completely revitalized our old fireplace with a little help from some handy library books. A little background on this project: our home was owned by the same couple for 50 years. Due to the fact that they'd passed on before we bought the house, we never got the chance to meet them. This hasn't stopped us from trying to figure them out though and they've proved to be interesting characters. They had an apparent love of cable television, cigarettes, and heavy drapery. We realized when we started this project that they had actually placed a TV in the fireplace and ran some cabling up through the cinder box at the base of the firebox. My husband easily dismantled that ingenious fire hazard but we needed a bit of outside assistance in figuring out how to regrout the firebox, install a safe gas line, and put the whole thing together. Hello TSCPL! We got several great books on fireplaces and plumbing. My dad scored us a new gas line switch and helped talk my husband through the installation. I bought the new log set online (and man, was that one heavy box!) and was responsible for all the grout work. I'm not afraid to say that I really kick #!@? with a grout gun. The best part of this project was putting everything together and turning it on for the first time (and not having anything explode!) We love it, especially on cold winter nights!"

Scarlett used the following books to help her in her project.  This is what she has to say about them: "These books have great photos and diagrams in them. When working on a home improvement project, it really helps to have lots of images to consult."

Fireplaces: inspiration and information for the do-it-yourselfer by Jerri Farris
Fireplaces and Wood Stoves by Time-Life Books
The Complete Guide to Home Plumbing by Black & Decker

Thanks so much for your Project Library submission, Scarlett!  Click here if you’d like more information about fireplaces. And if you’re interested in submitting your own project fill out the Project Library form and tell us about your completed (or half completed) projects: meals that you’ve cooked, breads and cookies that you’ve baked, quilts that you’ve sewn, volcanoes that you’ve erupted, papers you’ve written, babies you’ve named, pictures you’ve drawn, rooms that you’ve decorated, or dogs that you’ve trained. Send us pictures of your library projects, a brief description, and the titles of the books or other library resources that you used to help complete your project and we’ll post them here in the Project Library column.