Fireplace Makeover

We had a nice brick wood burning fireplace, but the style was a little 70's. When Tom and I went on a trip to see his sister in Ohio and noticed her beautiful ceramic tiled fireplace, that was all it took we decided to make ours over. These are the shots of Tom refacing it. The first shot is when Tom put the leveling mortar on the seat of the fireplace it was a little uneven. The second was after he drilled the cement backerboard in. The third was putting a black piece of granite that we got at lowes for $7.00 to finish off the firebox area. The tiles are marble and were purchased for a steal at Lowes. The tiles were I believe $2.28 per tile. We purchased 40 tiles. When we did the fireplace we didn't have our own wet saw, so we rented one for $85.00. Tom also had to rent a hammer drill to hammer the backerboard into the brick of the fireplace, but it turned out that was a wasted expense because all he really needed to do was a get a cement drill bit. I believe the total makeover was around $400.00. I think that isn't to bad, but alot on a poor girl budget. It was Tom's real first time tiling and it turned out FABOOSH!!!! My only major issue is that I have never had a fireplace before, and still can't figure out what to put on the mantle.
Update of how it looks now.

It is holding up great!