Fun Finds Part 2 and Finally a Before and After

Mark discovered a few more things the other day that are worthy of the "fun finds" classification:

When Mark tore out the walls in the bathroom, he found several newspapers from the 70's stuffed in between the walls, I guess as filler. This is the front page from 6/10/74. The heading "Nixon Mideast Goal: Seal Era of Peace" is pretty ironic in these times. Doesn't look like that goal was met!
Look at this killer deal on leisure suits, and that plaid suit jacket is H-O-T hot!

Pardon the grossness of this photo, but Mark found this when he moved the fridge the other day. It must have been jammed up in there pretty good because he'd moved the fridge several times before this finally fell out. The cover of this reads "American Nickels of the 20th Century" and the inside cover reads "Rapidly Vanishing U.S. Nickel Classics". Not sure what these would be worth, but maybe we could cash them in to finance the kitchen remodel!
And finally, a before and after series:

This is the living room before the previous owner had moved out.
Looking much better after all the junk was moved out. Notice the dark wood trim around the ceiling. Mark tore this off because it's likely not original and kind of closes the room in. Once he tore it off, it was evident that the room hadn't been painted since it was put up, likely 30 years ago or more!
We decided that the brick and mantle on the fireplace was a little too 70's looking and was probably a product of the brick loving owners who owned the house up until the 90's....
so we decided to tear it all off and start from scratch. Luckily Mark said the bricks came off pretty easily. The two glass doors in this picture were salvaged several years ago from a house in Midvale that was being torn down. Mark wanted to see if the wood would match the woodwork in the rest of the house, so he could possibly use them to create a little built in bookcase next to the fireplace. The wood matches quite well, but unfortunately the doors are a little too tall. I'm pretty confident Mark will figure something out though, and I have no doubt it will be cool!
I have a feeling this fireplace will make the room once Mark's done with it and once we replace the tacky brass lights with more period lights. I think it will be one of the first things you notice when you walk in the front door, and we all can't wait to hang our stockings from the mantle at Christmas time...not this one, but hopefully the next!