The 7 ft long fireplace

In my Living Room - My Fireplace measures 7 feet 3 inches wide
I have stared at it. I have laid on the floor and looked at it. I have sat and thought about it.
It is just plain UGLY.
Red nasty mixed up Santa Suit Sooted Red Brick- Uggh. With homemade porridge mortar...finger swirls included at it was bricked DIY. Must have let the children help because it shows.
The Mantle as I applied the paint striper ...found it to have over Doh ... Nine Colors of latex ..over the wood. It came up like Juicy Fruit on a sidewalk of a 90 degree day...stretchy ..gummy and just nasty...... sigh

Knob and Tube to Cereal Boxes

We had all the knob and tube removed and replaced.... we thought we were A-Ok
But its always the last place you look ..under updated light switch plates ..we never thought we
would Find a cut out from a cereal box to be a makeshift outlet cover ... a double wall switch reduced to One. And bonus it has not one but two layers of Wallpaper and possibly 4 coats of latex paint sandwiched between. We have found - Mustard Yellow, Minty Green Blue, Old sad ugly pale mauve and ...hunter green... no order in any ... just my memory of shock.