Monday, October 23rd, 2000



They've started building the chimney! The square concrete pipe at right is the vent for the boiler in the basement (house heat).

Here's a closeup view of the fireplace hole before it was filled. The underside of the hole is lined with mesh to contain the concrete. Interestingly, this WILL contain the wet concrete.

Here they are filling the base with concrete. This consumes about a yard and a half of concrete, all brought by wheelbarrow thru the garage and kitchen. This reinforced base extends into the room to create a solid footing for the hearth.

Here's how the base looks all poured.

Amazingly, even for this small amount of concrete, they had it brought by truck instead of mixing it themselves. The mason says that the time savings and increased concrete quality offset the extra expense of delivery. My guess is that the truck just stopped here on it's way to another job.

Here's the extent of progress made today on the fireplace. The mason says he'll build the firebox (inside) before he continues upward.

Here's what the basement portion of the fireplace looks like. Note the hole at right - there's the boiler vent! The wood bracing is to support the hearth that extends into the room. The bricks along the top are functional, not decorative. They simply to add 4" to the top of the cinder blocks, setting the base at the proper height.

More progress on the back porch. They started with the temporary columns and will soon have the roof built.

They installed the transomes above the garage doors. Not sure why they did this now - probably they were delivered and it's easier to install them than to store them. They'll be painted green to match the roof trim.