Day 17

Much to my builder’s chagrin, the chimney work is taking much longer than either he or the lead mason anticipated. In his first Change Order for the additional fireplace work needed he described the unforeseen work as necessary to correct “… loosely stacked block in lieu of laid, linked, and bonded like a normal foundation …” In a second Change Order, necessary to convert the extra time to money, he was a bit more specific “… beyond anyone’s expectations – frankly the existing chimney was “crap” for lack of a better word. The brick mason has requested additional funds…” Don’cha just love those technical terms?

I can lay brick just well enough to appreciate how good these masons are. They had a tough, somewhat unique job to do, and I have no qualms with the extra amount of time the rebuild is taking.

Here’s the inside view of what is left of the fireplace. In laying hardwoods near the den’s fireplace many years back, I noticed the brick hearth is actually supported by the floor joists as opposed to a concrete foundation. Never seemed to be a problem, and a closer inspection revealed the bedroom’s hearth is constructed the same way. The wooden header visible in the top of the fireplace surprised me. It surprised both the builder & masons too. And it was not necessarily a pleasant surprise. But it had no scorch marks. Undoubtedly, though, the masons will throw in a few “laid, linked, and bonded” bricks to keep it that way.

Notice that big piece of wood in the fireplace picture above? Its technical term is “critter blocker”. While it worked as advertised for keeping skunks & drunks out, it did not do much for drafts. Embarking on what became a sleeping tour of the house, we first moved our bed to the den. The Boyz thought it was great as they had great fun in framing what was showing on the big TV with their toes.

Kim’s quality time with masonry tools helped save us $250 (keep reading)

Deciding the den was not the best place for our bed, we moved it into the dining room. It’s great! Now when we lay awake at night worrying about construction details, the Baldwin Studio piano is conveniently located where I can just roll over & belt out an uplifting tune.

Formal dinners in the dining room will be a bit cozier with Kim & mines’ chests of drawers.

Other than running the new (darker) brick up higher, mods to the inside portion of the chimney task are complete.

The original Change Order for the chimney modifications included $250 for fill brick. Since the bulk of the chimney will be concealed by sheetrocked walls, the fill bricks’ color is not an issue. Finish brick will be used when the chimney passes the roofline.

Between the shop & front porch projects of years ago, I had amassed a lot of brick, and asked the builder to use it for the chimney rebuild. So between the unmortared fill, and finish brick fished from the original chimney, and various brick from my personal brick yard, the chimney now has a certain calico look to it.

Also in the picture above, you may recall that the new construction was supposed to line up with the left hand side of the chimney, and through an architect goof it can not. Soon after the foundation block was laid, the builder found that Big Tub’s connection to the other side of the house was also on course to run into an existing window. Fortunately, this collision was avoidable by shifting a wall. But since it was an exterior wall, a new foundation wall of block had to be laid. No block had to be ordered though, as there was more than enough “loosely stacked block“ in the original chimney available to complete the task.

Tomorrow promises to be a big day. The builder got the masons to move their scaffolding for now to allow the framers to empty out as many of my six piles of lumber as they can. Stay tuned!