We have a 1924 colonial and now that we've removed wallpaper, plastered and painted the living room, the old dirty brick fireplace is sort an eyesore. if you get a new wood mantle installed over the brick with maybe a stone facing, it can easily run into $4-$5000 from companies likes Collinswood etc. Beautiful stuff. But my first thought was to hire a good carpenter and build it out a bit and use tile for the facing. maybe leave the existing wooden top mantle. Or I've heard there are kits you can buy where you measure and they send it out to you for your carpenter to install. Any recommendations. We're willing to spend the $$ for a good one but is there any other way?