Topix Underground

So one of the demands being placed on me is that when the chimney swifts leave for the season...probably already have...I'm suppose to put a cap on the chimney and finish the work on the stone fireplace I started and almost finished back in like 2013. I'm sure I had a vision back then, I'm just at a loss to recall.  I got rid of the baby-killer hearth and covered the brick face with "cultured" stone. It really took a measure of temerity bordering on fraud to use the word "cultured" in reference to that material.  Nevertheless, I think if I can build an appropriately distracting mantle, the culture of the "stone" will recede. Seems like I had a mantle plan that involved a fallen tree and a set of handed and very expensive Swedish chip axes too. I probably came up with that plan at 2 in the morning.