I took one last picture of our fireplace last night before I cleaned it off...
Here's the VERY LAST picture....
Here's Mr. Gecko I found when I moved the end table...I think his tail got chopped off a little. Maybe I did that when I shut the back door...sorry little guy. Zack picked him up and put him outside for me!
It didn't take them long to tear up the fireplace. It was ALL brick under the stone. Dry brick...with no mortar on it...brick we could have used on the foundation...
Here's the fireplace...not even a fireplace at this point. It's just a wall now. Zack said the craftsmanship was superb on the fireplace...too bad we had to tear it out :(
Here's what the wall looked like after they took out the fireplace insert. The boys slept through the entire process up to this point. Once he started up his saw...the metal to metal noise scared Brandon big time. He cried for the next 2 hours or so...poor guy!
Here's the back of the chimney. Zack came in and told me there were THOUSANDS of carpenter ants, water bugs, and possibly termites in the top of the chimney. So, before they started tearing it down, I called my pest guy to come out and do a HEAVY DUTY spray. Once they tore that down, the bugs were going to have to go somewhere and I didn't want them in my house! Eric and I knew the chimney had water damage on it, and that it would need to be repaired or replaced, but we didn't realize how bad it was. It was cheaper to just tear it down than to replace it!
Zack (on the right) used one hammer to pry off the composite siding and the other hammer to smash the bugs as they came out. Seriously...YUCK! He wanted me to look up into the stack to see the bugs, but I couldn't do it.
Still tearing it down...
I left at the point and took the boys to a friend's house for a few hours....this is what it looked like when I got back.
You're probably wondering WHY I took a picture of all of this brick. There were over a THOUSAND fresh bricks hidden under the fireplace...on the outside. It was enough brick to build our foundation...TWICE! To think that we just paid for all new brick was really upsetting...to us and to Zack. He had no idea that the original builder stashed all of that under the fireplace. Needless to say, the original brick mason cheated the builder since they get paid PER BRICK.
Here is the fireplace insert they took out...
Here is all of the nasty chimney wood that is laying in the new crawl space
Here's an idea of how much brick was hidden. The brick was stacked SOLID all the way to the bottom of this whole. Can you believe that???
Here is some of the stone they tore off the fireplace above the mantle.
The mantle didn't survive! It wasn't a solid mantle anyway:( The boys and I went to Becky's house for a few hours. Her husband is deployed with Eric and they have a 3 month old. It was the first time I got to meet her and she was SO cute!!! The boys discovered EVERYTHING in Becky's house that wasn't OK for them to play with. We came home and I put them down for a nap. That was at 345 and they are STILL asleep at 615. I'm going to wake them up and give them some dinner. Brandon didn't eat too well at lunch because he was crying. He missed out on yummy grilled cheese, grapes and brussel sprouts! It's ham, mashed taters, and pumpkin biscuits for dinner...hopefully he'll eat better....poor guy was so scared today :( Please pray for my sanity with this construction going on. Today was a rough day.
Here's the VERY LAST picture....
Here's Mr. Gecko I found when I moved the end table...I think his tail got chopped off a little. Maybe I did that when I shut the back door...sorry little guy. Zack picked him up and put him outside for me!
It didn't take them long to tear up the fireplace. It was ALL brick under the stone. Dry brick...with no mortar on it...brick we could have used on the foundation...
Here's the fireplace...not even a fireplace at this point. It's just a wall now. Zack said the craftsmanship was superb on the fireplace...too bad we had to tear it out :(
Here's what the wall looked like after they took out the fireplace insert. The boys slept through the entire process up to this point. Once he started up his saw...the metal to metal noise scared Brandon big time. He cried for the next 2 hours or so...poor guy!
Here's the back of the chimney. Zack came in and told me there were THOUSANDS of carpenter ants, water bugs, and possibly termites in the top of the chimney. So, before they started tearing it down, I called my pest guy to come out and do a HEAVY DUTY spray. Once they tore that down, the bugs were going to have to go somewhere and I didn't want them in my house! Eric and I knew the chimney had water damage on it, and that it would need to be repaired or replaced, but we didn't realize how bad it was. It was cheaper to just tear it down than to replace it!
Zack (on the right) used one hammer to pry off the composite siding and the other hammer to smash the bugs as they came out. Seriously...YUCK! He wanted me to look up into the stack to see the bugs, but I couldn't do it.
Still tearing it down...
I left at the point and took the boys to a friend's house for a few hours....this is what it looked like when I got back.
You're probably wondering WHY I took a picture of all of this brick. There were over a THOUSAND fresh bricks hidden under the fireplace...on the outside. It was enough brick to build our foundation...TWICE! To think that we just paid for all new brick was really upsetting...to us and to Zack. He had no idea that the original builder stashed all of that under the fireplace. Needless to say, the original brick mason cheated the builder since they get paid PER BRICK.
Here is the fireplace insert they took out...
Here is all of the nasty chimney wood that is laying in the new crawl space
Here's an idea of how much brick was hidden. The brick was stacked SOLID all the way to the bottom of this whole. Can you believe that???
Here is some of the stone they tore off the fireplace above the mantle.
The mantle didn't survive! It wasn't a solid mantle anyway:( The boys and I went to Becky's house for a few hours. Her husband is deployed with Eric and they have a 3 month old. It was the first time I got to meet her and she was SO cute!!! The boys discovered EVERYTHING in Becky's house that wasn't OK for them to play with. We came home and I put them down for a nap. That was at 345 and they are STILL asleep at 615. I'm going to wake them up and give them some dinner. Brandon didn't eat too well at lunch because he was crying. He missed out on yummy grilled cheese, grapes and brussel sprouts! It's ham, mashed taters, and pumpkin biscuits for dinner...hopefully he'll eat better....poor guy was so scared today :( Please pray for my sanity with this construction going on. Today was a rough day. 
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