The actual rock lay up took about 4 half days, and went faster the more I'd done. The viscosity of the mortar is important, as it keeping the wall and rock surfaces moist. If you don't spray down the wall (textured surface), it will suck the moisture out of the mortar and you'll get a dry, weak bond. So rather than mixing the mortar like peanut butter, it should be a bit wetter—like warm yogurt. If so, you have about 30 seconds to mess with the placement of the rock, then its bonded enough that you can let it go and it won't fall off. Remember that I'm laying the rock from top down in order to keep mortar off the finished surface of the rock wall, and this has worked out pretty well.
People have asked me about the pattern for laying the rock. This is where a little artist talent helps, not that I have any. There is no pattern, just keep "random" in mind. I usually lay out a box of rock on the floor and organize them by size, being a type A guy. These are all rectangular blocks, ranging from 4" x 4" and 4" x 8" on the small side to 12" x 18" at the upper end. So you don't want to cluster the little ones together, or have too many big ones in the same area. Also you don't want any 4-way intersection:3-way (T intersections are the norm). The only cutting comes into play is where you abut another surface, like the mantle or the closed end (right side) of the plastered wall (Tuscon gold). Here you just have to cut to fit, but never leave less than 4 inches to deal with. Its better to have a 6 inch ending piece, then a little 2" scrap. Likewise around the mantle (although I already failed this test once, see photo above on lower left side).When you get into a complex cut, such as around the mantle pieces, its easiest to make a pattern out of cardboard. Measure, draw cut, and fit it in. Trim as necessary, then you have a template to mark all the cuts you'll need to do on the tile saw. By the way, this stuff cuts like butter and fast. If you've a bit big, just take a coarse file and whittle the piece down to fit. Its quite forgiving.
After the rock was all fit (but not placed), Nancy put four coats of polyurethane satin finish on the mantle piece and legs. Sanded with 220 after coat no. 2, then hit it with a foam sanding pad (like steel wool) before the fourth and last coat. The finish has good depth and the wood should redden up a bit with time, as has our doors and windows throughout the house.
Next came the travertine tile that surrounds the firebox and matches the hearth. The mantle tiles are 12" x 12", whereas the hearth tiles (4) are 18" x 18". The tile went up pretty fast, only trick was to make sure that I got a flush edge with the mantle and uniform and parallel gaps between the tiles. Nancy buttered up the tiles and I stuck them to the plywood backing—finished it in less than an hour. Then I grouted the tile with an unsanded caulk since the tiles may expand and contract with the gas fireplace is on. Cleaned up and pronounced the job done. Now we can party with furniture in the living room.P.S. The colors in the last photo are pretty close to true.
