Day 14

Even though the masons are still hard at work on the chimney, the framers stopped by and nailed up the first walls:

The chimney’s veneer brick has now been totally removed. The yellow brick seen in the next two shots is the bedroom fireplace’s firebrick, which is a special, high temperature brick used to line the firebox. The masons were asked to save it for me as I priced the brick once for an outdoor pizza oven (don’t tell my wife ), and was surprised at how expensive it is.

Here’s where you get to laugh along with Kim & Tom: Can you say “termites in the existing house’s roof”? Well, that’s what the builder said in the message he left me at my office. “You might want to call your termite company” was his concluding remark. That part was easy: “Hello Tom? Go fix your problem!”

Inspecting the damage after my day job that evening, the rafter extending down the left hand side of the chimney was found to have disintegrated due to rot & bug damage during the chimney removal, and the right-hand rafter, while still intact, was obviously not too far behind it. Careful inspection revealed no mud trails to the ground meaning the damage was confined to the rafters where water had leaked in around the chimney.

On a lighter note, in the first picture, the shiny object is a radio speaker without its grill. The cocked, center part is an adjustable tweeter to focus sound where it is needed. While talking to the masons, I asked if anyone had seen the grill as it had undoubtedly popped off during all the hammering. “That’s a speaker?!?” one of them asked. “I thought it was a camera!” I had to laugh when I thought about the guys worrying that I was monitoring their masonry activity.

The masons unintentionally confirmed the lack of any serious structural bug damage as they laid brick across the rooftop after fishing it out of the chimney. Since much of the damaged wood will end up being removed to tie old & new construction together, it is looking like the bugs are a non-issue.

By the way, the cube of block in the picture below is most of what was fished out of the old chimney.

Where’s Waldo?