Painting a fireplace

One of the first things I painted when we moved in here was the fireplace - it was an old reddish brown brick and I could not look at it ( we have an exposed brick wall in the living room which is original brick - but the brick on the fireplace had been replaced and was newer and a completely different color and it darkened an already dark room.  I suggested we paint it white and John kept saying no, he wanted to have it resurfaced in a slate, soooooooooooooo, one night when he was sleeping I crept out and opened the paint tin and painted and painted and painted ( it takes a lot of paint to cover brick ) so that it was done when he woke up,  if he hated it we could always cover it after, right?
He liked it!  I liked it! ( notice I say liked - past tense - will get back to that at a later date - but suffice it to say that my disorder includes getting very bored with things very fast lol )

It really made a night and day impact on the room for very little cost.

So this is what this leads up to.
My girlfriend just bought an apartment - with a brick fireplace - and again the brick is reddish brown and dirty with soot stains and really quite an eyesore so she asked if I thought she should paint it.  YES!!!!!!!!!! ( she has hired me to decorate her house - so this is now my job ) and off I ran with the tools of my trade.

Got to her place - pulled out the tarp - and began this very very simple job.
OH MY GOD - her brick does not have mortar between it ( grout ) so every  brick stands out on it's own,
which means you have to paint each brick - and then try to get BETWEEN each brick - with it's gouges and holes and all - and the brush was just not cutting it - I then tried a tiny foam brush which I could just sort of poke into the spaces - no good.
I than had a stroke of genius - I would put the tarp all around the fireplace - and then get inside it - and spray like crazy -
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME - I am actually peeing myself thinking of this - somebody should really lock me up - no mask - you have to try to visualize this - as I was darting in and out with this bloody spray can - and choking to death - and as you know you cannot spray up close - you need to be at a distance with sweeping motions - but desperate times call for desperate measures and I was determined ( determination can definitely kill you ) and I was literally attacking this fireplace - and complaining non stop - why didn't they put mortar between the bricks - who lays bricks without mortar - this is the stupidest way to lay bricks etc - etc.
as I ran out for air every 2 seconds -
And guess what - the fireplace got done....................

I forgot to take pics of the before - which is a shame - but I will post pics of the after.  Off today to paint the rest of the room - this apartment has huge potential - so it's exciting to be a part of it's transformation -

Have a good day all,

xxx