Archives For -Chimney

The Crane is Gone and Other Ramblings

April 18, 2011 — Leave a comment

The ruts in the lawn from the crane.

Sam spending some time with his favorite thing!

 

The crane is gone! It left at 8 am sharp this morning. The guys will be back tomorrow to try and help repair some of the ruts to the lawn  and replace the 2 broken pieces of flagstone (from the weight of the crane). They are still trying to coordinate putting back in the fence & fence post (hopefully this week). Then they should be all finished! Sam is sad that the crane is leaving us and has requested one of his own for his birthday. We also got to enjoy the new gas fireplace on Saturday evening (while it was POURING outside).

We are a little discombobulated here today. Maisie is under the weather and is home with me today and school is closing early today and will be closed tomorrow.  But I have an exciting day tomorrow! I am meeting up with some old colleagues and Bob Venturi (my old boss and mentor) is going to take us on a tour of the Vanna Venturi House (aka Mother’s House). The house is a famous post-modern masterpiece designed that Bob designed for his mother in Chestnut Hill in the early 1960s. I have been there before (many years ago) but never with Bob. I will try and post the tour on Wednesday.

 

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In -Chimney, -Victorian, GARDENING & PLANTS, OUR HOME
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The Chimney Update: Day 5

April 15, 2011 — Leave a comment

IT IS ALL FINISHED!

The chimney from yesterday afternoon. Patching complete and Chimney Pots installed!

Close up of the chimney from yesterday afternoon.

Chimney from this afternoon. All Painted! (try to ignore the rotted King's Post on the front of the house)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished chimney from this afternoon.

 

Yes, I am jumping up and down! Plus my carpenter managed to use the lift today to remove the rotted piece of wood on the King’s Post, fabricate a replacement (a full 2″x4″), prime it, install it, patch where required and paint it (separate post coming)! Plus it is a beautiful day! I am going to ignore the giant divots from the crane in the backyard for the moment and pretend all is perfect in the world. I hope it is this nice where you live!

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In -Chimney, -Fireplace, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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The Chimney Update: Day 4

April 14, 2011 — 1 Comment

Checking for level

 

Installing the Bluestone Cap

Gas logs in Progress in the Living Room

My chimney guys are back and they have a nice dry day to finish things up! So far this morning they have install the bluestone cap on top of the chimney (this sits below the pretty new fancy caps), started installing the logs for the fireplace, and started scraping the painted stucco on the chimney. I picked a paint color for the chimney (portobello). The chimney should end up a little darker and a warm grey as opposed to the yellowish/tan color it is now.

Things left to do:

-Install the Fancy Chimney Caps

-Finish scraping the chimney to get it ready for paint

-Prime and Paint the Chimney (tomorrow)

-Finish installing the gas logs in the Living Room

-Remove Crane (next week)

-Replace Fence (next week)

Things left for me to do:

-Go back on the lift this afternoon to get measurements for the King’s Post (to see if I can pick up a piece of wood this afternoon)

-Tonight my neighbor/carpenter is suppose to come by to look at the King’s Post

-Pick out a new fireplace screen for the fireplace. I found a pretty good price on a custom one from Northline Express since none of the standard size screens come close to fitting our old fireplace. We are thinking of having it fit just inside the opening.

Update:

The guys are done with the chimney and the gas logs (except for the paint)!

Installing the Chimney Pots!

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In -Chimney, -Fireplace, -Living Room, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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Aerial Shots of the House

April 13, 2011 — 1 Comment

I got to ride in the lift/crane this afternoon! The chimney guys wanted to show me the condition of the stucco on the chimney, but we also got to take a look at the rotted king’s post on the side of the house and the windows on back side of the turret. It was REALLY cool (and I am even afraid of heights)! Now for the photos….

 

On the way up!

Just above the roof.

At the top of the peak!

 

the tower & chimney

the tower and flat roof

the chimney

the rotted king's post

Now I am in a mad rush to see if I can find someone to replace the piece of the king’s post while the crane is still here! I am going to see if the guys might be willing to let me go up again tomorrow and see if I could take some measurements and possibly get it down myself.

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In -Chimney, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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The Chimney Update: Day 3

April 13, 2011 — 1 Comment

Sam, Maisie and the Crane

Maisie is busy putting on her rain boots and coat but Sam is still watching the crane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids are home today and will probably be spending a good part of the day watching the crane! Sam has requested a crane like this one for his birthday. He said, “Don’t worry mom, it will be an outside toy. It won’t fit through the door.”

The guys are busy finishing up the insulation. The plumber will be here to install the gas line for the gas logs later this morning. Fingers crossed, all will go well and they will be mostly finished today.

Update: The plumber has been here and the gas is now hooked up to the gas logs and the guys are still working on the top of the chimney. The other new development is the condition of the stucco on the chimney. It is currently painted (was probably painted about 13-15 years ago) and it is starting to flake. So we 2 options: have them scrape and repaint or have it stuccoed and smoothed out. We are waiting on a cost for the stucco. The question now is what color? hmmm… I will have to photoshop some options.

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In -Chimney, -Fireplace, -Victorian, FAMILY, OUR HOME
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The Chimney Update: Day 2

April 12, 2011 — Leave a comment

The stainless steel liner for the fireplace waiting to be installed

The rest of the very long piece of liner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chimney guys have been busy at work here! Yesterday they managed to install the liner for the boiler and hot water heater. They left mid-afternoon yesterday to head back to the shop to get everything ready for today. They were back this morning with the fireplace liner. It is rainy here today but that doesn’t seem to have slowed them down.  The lining is now in the fireplace (the picture is from this morning). If all goes well the chimney pots will go up tomorrow.

Update: The guys are done here for the day. They have put in a good portion of the insulation (a special perlite, concrete mix). The specialty product  hardens to keep the stainless steel liners in place while preventing any chance of a fire or spark from coming through the flues. They are installing this all the way up the chimney. I think they have a whole pallet load of this stuff and one guy mixing on the ground while the other two go up on the lift, carefully pour it down the 3 flues and then come back down on the lift.

If all goes well the chimney caps will go up tomorrow. They have some more structural work to do at the top in the morning to get ready for the caps.

 

The guys installing the insulation in each of the 3 flues.

The guys coming back down for another load of insulation.

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In -Chimney, -Fireplace, -Living Room, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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The Crane, The Crane! (chimney lining)

April 11, 2011 — Leave a comment

The crane has been here for 10 minutes and they have already been up to the chimney and taken off the cap!

The Crane!

Getting Ready for the Crane

The day has finally come for the chimney lining! I’m so excited! The guys are here (the guys being DJ Cross Inc from Media).  They are waiting on the overdue crane (oh wait, now it is here!)

In the meantime they have taken down part of the back fence and are already down in the basement starting to work! Fingers crossed that all goes well. I will post pictures as they start making progress.

Also I have my plants safely tucked away in the compost pile (in the back right side of the picture).

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In -Chimney, -Fireplace, -Victorian, OUR HOME
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