My sister bought a house that was built in the 70's. It has a brick fireplace with a wood mantle. The bricks and mantle had been painted white by the time they bought it. One day her doorbell rang and a guy introduced himself as the one who had built the house. He did most of the work himself. He was just dropping by to visit so my sister and her husband invited him in. He just about cried when he saw the fireplace and mantle. Turns out the mantle was a special order (from Asia) huge slab of teak. He said it was gorgeous. Sis hasn't gotten around to carefully stripping all the paint off of it yet.