How is Santa Going to Visit? Removing Our Chimney

Remember this science experiment happening in the guest room?


Well, after our adventure removing the old and installing the new water heater and furnace, we were free to remove the chimney.  We plan on doing it stages:

1.) Remove from roof.
2.) Remove from attic.
3.) Tear out from upstairs bathroom, (during bathroom renovation)
4.) Tear out in kitchen, (during kitchen renovation)
5.) Remove remaining from basement.

This is also the order in which we'll do the major interior renovations, upstairs bathroom first, kitchen, then basement bathroom and family room.

Some of us were a little more excited than others to start the roof removal part.  I woke up Saturday morning to loud pounding and found this when I went outside in the front yard:


And found this in the back yard:


Mike made short work of removing the brick from the chimney that extended above the roof.  My yard too soon looked like this:


And I'm glad my new car was in the garage, because we had some jumpers:


 After removing the bricks we were left with this:


A giant hole kind of defeats fixing the water leaking through the bad flashing.  After the brick line made it past the roof, Mike used the brick flinging method to remove more of the chimney that's in the attic.  While I preferred to travel through the attic access inside, Mike opted for a more unconventional method:


Yes, there were many times during this project that I held my breath. 

The following photo has two purposes, one showing how low the chimney was removed into the attic, and two because I try to find any excuse to show off Mike's backside.


Okay, back to PG rating.  After the brick was removed, the hole in the decking was cut to the rafters on either side of the hole.  This is done so that load of the new decking will be distributed equally to the rafters.  As I tried to generally keep my visits up the attic to a minimum, I only have a photo of the cut hole from the safety of the ground outside.


A piece of plywood was cut to fit the hole and put into place, not sure how Mike got it up there since he definitely didn't come inside to do it.  It's probably best I wasn't watching.  Not only did he magically bring the plywood up, he also carried up these cut 2x6's, which were added to the cut rafter that used to sit against the chimney.


At this point Mike felt like a little photo shoot.  I let him pick the poses, his inspiration being the Sword in the Stone with a construction interpretation.  First up, crowbar in the chimney:


Next, King Michael pulling the crowbar from the chimney. 


Umm, we're kinda dorky.  Maybe it was the confined space getting to our heads.

After putting the plywood into place, Mike then added felt paper and shingles to completely erase any sign that a chimney used to be there.  I could have helped, I do know how to shingle, I just prefer to not do it 30 feet above the ground. 

Even with the few years difference and the expected fading, the patch is barely noticeable.


Plus, this means we can fix the water damage in the guest room and never have to worry about that again!
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Our Friend Craig

Craig, as in Craigslist. 

Mike and I love a good deal, I mean really love a deal.  That's probably why I get a Craigslist posting in my email box at least once a week from my partner in crime.  Some are useful, like this DSLR camera (something I've been shopping around for awhile now):


And some are downright weird, like this one that gives me the heebie-jeebies:


So it came as no surprise when I got a call from Mike saying that he had found another gem on Craigslist:


Yes, that is a furnace (the listing didn't include the plenum (big gray metal top), which one of the guys on Mike's jobsite made for us).  You see, one of the major projects we have planned since we moved in, is to remove our chimney (seen in the floor plan below) that is currently taking up prime real estate space in between our kitchen and dining room.  By removing the chimney (and the closet), we can then extend the kitchen into the dining room and create more of an open layout.   


This was the plan, a plan that was to be in the future, far into the future.  That was, until we noticed this:


No, it's not some alien life form growing in our guest room, it's water damage from water leaking through the flashing of the chimney on the roof.  This just shoved our future chimney removal straight into the very now present. 

For those waiting for the connection between the chimney project and a new furnace, here it is.  The function of the chimney, since we don't have a fireplace, is the venting of the fumes from the furnace and the water heater.  We knew in order to remove the chimney, we would need to replace both of these to higher efficiency models.  The higher efficiency units use a condensing process, which cools down the exhaust gases down so that they are able to be vented using PVC piping, which can vent horizontally out the side of the house.  We thought we would have time to shop for some deals and save up for the new units, seeing as how a new high-efficiency furnace can run close to $2,000-$3,000.  Not something we were looking forward to spending.

Cue the angels singing as Mike found a slightly used high-efficiency furnace on Craigslist.  The seller had a house almost exactly the same square footage as ours and recently put a large addition on.  This created the need to replace his perfectly fine working furnace with a bigger one.  For only, wait for it, $275!  That's right, if it takes a poop in the next five years, who cares, it was less than 10% of what we were originally budgeting!  

Not only were we super lucky that we got it, (when Mike called to arrange to pick it up, the guy said that someone else had called and wanted it too, Mike asked what he could do to ensure he got it, and the guy replied "Well, who ever gets here first can have it." I'm glad I wasn't in the truck when Mike sped off to get it!) we were also lucky that we bought it when we did, because you'll never believe what happened next.

After feeling calm and collected after jumping up and down for the awesome deal we just scored, (not to mention finding a new power-vented water heater for less than $600), we planned to spend the following two weekends installing the water heater and furnace.  Weekend one came around and Mike installed the water heater with little trouble. 

First the old one was disconnected:


Then it was moved out into the garage, and the space was ready for the new one:


Then Mike moved the new one into place, and hooked it up.  Here's the new one we were installing:


And it was that easy.  Okay, maybe not.  There was some re-piping, soldering, trips to Home Depot, drilling through the siding, installing the new PVC vent pipe to the outside.  But as far as installing a major household unit, it was relatively easy, for Mike.  I was there for moral support and the occasional holding of the pipe.

What did we do with the old water heater, may you ask?

Sold it on Craigslist, of course! 

Later the next week, it was Thursday night while we were busy planning on the furnace switch and enjoying our weeknight, when I noticed the thermostat wasn't responding to the call for more heat.  It was about 62 degrees when we usually keep it around 68 degrees.  Some more investigation led to the discovery that the old furnace decided not to wait until the weekend to get replaced.  It stopped working right then.  

Now, what are the chances that we electively decide to replace our furnace on Saturday and the old one gives out on Thursday?  I told Mike that after we moved the new one into the basement, the old one looked at it and thought, "You think you're going to replace me? Well fine then." and died right there. (I also thought the old furnace would have an Italian accent, not sure why).

So Thursday night we began the much more complicated process of switching the furnaces.  It began the same way as the water heater, first disconnecting the old one:


And exposing all the guts and insides:


Then, completely removing the old one, (all 150 pounds or so of it):

   
I'm not going to try to pretend that after the new one was put into place it was cake after that.  Mike spent Friday night and most of Saturday morning (as in, he didn't stop until 5 am on Saturday morning) hooking up the new furnace.  This included rewiring, re-piping the gas line, adding the PVC vent pipe, and all the electric hookups. 

One thing I learned was how I'll react if we were ever to have a fire in the middle of the night.  You see, at 5 am on Saturday Mike felt confidant in his work and turned the new furnace on.  This caused some dust to be pushed through the vents, setting off the smoke alarm upstairs.  I'd like to say I stay calm and collected and crawled on the floor before finding the source of the smoke (like they taught us in elementary school), but no, I ran around in my underwear running into walls, flailing my arms.  Benelli thought it was some sort of late night game and was excited.  I was less so when I found out what time it was, and that Mike hadn't been to bed yet.  After I calmed down and realized that not only dust was coming out of the vents, but also warm air, I was excited that my handyman was able to get it working.


And through all of this, there was only one casualty, our poor ceiling:


The ceiling had to be removed to add the new PVC vent pipe.  Adding one project just to finish another...story of our lives!
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What's The Plan, Stan?

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is 'What's next on our house list', or more specifically, what big project are we going to tackle next?  Well, after a very busy summer building our garage, we've actually been enjoying the cold weather by relaxing inside, not to mention, giving our wallets a little breather as well. 

Of course, we do have a plan in mind, and the next big project is to work on a space I've barely mentioned on this blog.  But, it's something that we use every day, numerous times a day.  A project that will be relatively easy, (compared to the other big projects we have to do, i.e. the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the basement), but when completed, will create a completely new space and add square footage for entertaining.  Anyone who's been over knows that I'm referring to a deck.

As I mentioned in only my second post, our backyard is in desperate need of a deck.  Mike and I can't wait to add some entertaining space to our backyard, and not only that, but we can't wait to fix the structurally unsound stairs and landing and the accident-waiting-to-happen railing.        


This picture was taken during our first walk-thru with the realtor and, especially now that things are again covered in snow, looks almost exactly the same.

Obviously, we have some things that we have to work with.  Such as the door placement and the overhang and posts.  And most importantly, we have to accommodate the fact that the back door is the main entrance and exit into the house.  To be honest, we actually never use the front door, expect to get the mail.  This definitely needs to be thought of in the design for the deck.  

Designing the deck was actually pretty easy.  We knew we had to have two sets of stairs, one for the everyday use from the back door to the garage (no one wants to shovel a whole deck just to get to the door), and one for the movement from the deck to the back yard.  Something both Mike and I liked was full length stairs, meaning, that instead of having only a standard 3 ft. staircase, the entire side would be stairs.  This would allow for easy access to the yard, and also additional seating in a pinch.

We also decided to have two specific "zones", one for the movement in and out of the house, and one for entertaining.  This was achieved by dropping the deck down a foot or two from the door height.  Meaning, the deck would have one platform that was at the height that you would exit the door, then it would go down to a lower platform a couple steps down.  This would also balance the look of the posts that would other wise stick into the middle of the deck, and generally look weird.

In case your completely lost right now, here's a picture of a basic rendering we did using a website after googling "free deck design":       


Surprisingly, there wasn't an option to add a random overhang, so you'll have to pretend.  The overhang and posts, (like in the first picture), are over the door and will be right next to the stairs to the left. 

Something else not pictured, is the plan to extend the upper layer at an angle in the top right of the deck.  This will be done to accommodate a grill.  That way Mike, (yes, Mike will be the one grilling.  Unfortunately, I only know how to cook meat one way - really well done) can have his own area to man the grill and still be a part of the action.

From those of you who have been over, or read about our driveway, you know that our driveway starts as a single drive and fans out to fit our 2 1/2 garage.  The deck design fits this design pretty nicely.  The stairs on the right will flow right into the new angled side of the driveway, with only minimal landscaping needed, probably some step stones and some gravel or grass. 

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what we have in mind.  As the weather begins to warm up, we'll be able to get more actual dimensions and really finalize the plan. 
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