Week 15

It seems that things are starting to come together...
We figured that if the septic is almost done, we’ll be applying for planning permission for the bathroom very soon so the job we’ve been avoiding had to happen- removing the chimney. JM went ahead and started without me and surprisingly was able to lift the section in our bedroom clean out. I joined him at this point and he put it back in place for a photo…big mistake! Once it was back in, it attached itself to the section below and we weren’t able to separate them, d’oh! We got Callum in on the act to lower the now longer chimney through the bedroom floor/kitchen ceiling and it was a bit of a struggle because of the weight of the thing. Once it was down, the boys took it out to the barn. JM headed into the attic to try and take out the next section, we got it unscrewed and all bolts removed but it didn’t budge. After much huffing and puffing, jiggling, twisting, pushing and pulling we ended up leaving it for the time being. It won’t be in the way of the building work so we’ll take it out with the top section(on the roof) in the spring.  Now that the chimney has gone we can open the closet door all the way! These simple little things make me happy.

Septic system? Nothing much going on there…more earth being shifted around but they haven’t been here for days so I think they are waiting for us to put in a plug socket to hook it all up.

We had the plumber (and assistant) out to do some updates to the waste pipes in preparation for the other work we’ll be getting done. They ripped out all the corroded cast iron and a section of lead. When they looked inside the base of the old stack they found so much debris that the vent was completely blocked. That is not good for the plumbing system, no venting in the entire house! I’m so glad we’re getting this all updated… He’ll be back in a while (once the well is done) to run some new lines and install a water softener, UV treatment and reverse osmosis unit.

And talking of the well, they were planning on drilling Friday which would have been fine if a massive snow storm hadn’t come through, dumping a foot of snow on everything. The kids’ schools were closed and JM worked from home so we were all here all day, not going anywhere. We cleared the snow the next day, it was a beautiful sunny day and a pleasure to be outside. We even had a bonfire to clear out some of the wood that needed to be gotten rid of.

Electrical, we’re having a new breaker panel put in to replace the old fuse box. It is happening right now! Lots of banging and crashing going on in the basement and they will be updating some wiring and installing some new receptacles -plug sockets for those who don’t speak Canadian :)  It is exciting to be making some progress although we still have a long way to go.