September 5-11....... a bit of this and that

Curtis spent the week doing odds and ends this week.

We got a bit of a surprise after a major wind storm a couple weeks ago, when we found a brick from the chimney down on our patio. So, before he started on the roof Curtis wanted to get them repaired.  Some of the bricks were crumbling, and the mortar was in pretty bad shape in spots.  So..... Curtis removed some of the bricks from the top, redid the mortar, and used the top bricks to replace the crumbled bricks. 

You know Curtis... he never slows down, so I am not sure that I have any before pix of the chimney, but it sure does look nice after the fact.  Curtis believes both of the chimneys are original to the house, but one has newer bricks added on to it to make it taller. 

When Curtis removed the sleeve from the furnace chimney (the smaller of the two) he discovered that it is 46 feet from the top of the chimney to the cellar floor, where the furnace is installed.

This is the closest thing I have to a before picture, while Curtis was replacing bad bricks.

This is the "smaller" chimney, smaller on the roof, but 46 feet to the cellar floor!

And this is the furnace chimney.

 The other big thing this week was the removal of the stupid flower box that was built up against the side of the house, under a large window.  This has been a source of debate. All along, Curtis has thought this might have been the "original" front door, because this is where the staircase is. However, we have a neighbor whose name is Matt McBride.  His great-great-grandfather built the home in 1890.  Matt told me that the existing front door is the original front door, and that he has photos that show that. Of course, he has not been able to come p with these photos just yet, so I may need to seek additional sources.

The flower box was ugly and poorly built, and Curtis needed the space to put up scaffolding for the roof job, so he took it all out, and sure enough, underneath the soil in the box was a set of concrete steps. So...... who knows. Now we really need those pictures.  Curtis and his cousin Travis took a sledge hammer to the steps and they are gone now.

This week, Curtis also removed some of the vinyl fencing in the back (he swears they used two bags of concrete per post!), purchased some scaffolding, and got it set up.  Three sets will just get you to the roof!