On the fireplace front - our contractor had recommended someone to us and he turned out to be great. He did a lovely job making a custom fireplace screen and a matching screen door to go over the space housing the stereo cabinet (former wood box). The stereo door looks a little wonky here as it isn't mounted on the wall just yet.
John made a nice stereo box with fully extending shelves to access the back of all that electronic equipment in there. And having a screen door in front (not pictured below) means the remote works through the door.
And finally, we ordered some vertical blinds from Smith and Noble. They had seemed to be in a good middle price range and we liked the fact that their Customer Service was so accessible and friendly. So we got those on Tuesday and John installed them over the last 2 evenings. I like them and the mechanism seems pretty good, but the valance over the top seems cheap. (I see we didn't even have the valance up yet when I took these pics.) And installing the chain at the bottom is not explained in the instructions and looks to be a royal pain so I haven't tackled that yet. But I think they look really nice and are certainly the right look for the room. We made them so they are longer than the actual sliding glass doors and hang outside of the space the doors are in. That way, when they are pulled open, the stacked blinds do not cover any of the window space, but are stacked over on the side, in front of the wall. (I think we figured out that the 8' sliding glass doors worked out to a stack depth of about 15" - surprising how big that is.)
