Brick by Brick

Last week’s demolition of my basement was pretty depressing.  It’s not exactly easy sitting around watching the walls crumble from underneath your home.

Deciding to also take out the brick hearth surrounding our pellet stove didn’t help much with that pain, but we all knew it was the right thing to do and the right time to do it.

It wasn’t exactly an easy task. First I had to get the 400lb stove moved. That meant making something strong enough to hold it and getting someone else strong enough to help me move it.

Luckily Mark stopped by and I was able to throw together this little cart.

With the stove out of the way, it was time to start whacking and jackhammering.

Jackhammers are interesting tools. They’re not as violent as they look (event pneumatic powered ones), but they certainly wear on you.

Four or so hours later it was all done and clean.

As you can see the bottom of the wall is completely covered with mold.

As hard as its been watching our downstairs get destroyed, it’s definitely a relief to discover and know all the moisture issues will be removed from our house with this project.

– b