Wow. These folks just move soooo fast. Today they took out most of the lathe from upstairs. I walked up the stairs and was awestruck at the amount of space in the attic area. It’s high. It’s huge. Unreal.The steel house jacks were put in place today and the original stone piers were removed from the west wall (facing Murphy Rd) and the northern den well, where the wrap-around porch joins in. Over the next few days footers will be poured and foundation walls built.
Scouted out locations for the wine cellar today, and decided that we need the foundation walls to be finished before we know what location will work best.
Chris and Simon didn’t help the mystery solving either today. When they took the east chimney down, they didn’t find the five feet deep bed of stone like they did under the west chimneys and kitchen chimney. We can’t explain why that stone foundation wasn’t there. Nor can we explain why some of the bricks on the east chimney were scorched on sides that weren’t facing the flu or firebox. It’s almost like the bricks were re-used from another chimney. This indicates a possibility that the east chimney may have been built from the northwest chimney when the northwest chimney was removed, but I don’t think that’s likely. The east chimney seems too logical.
Also got the close permit for the septic system, so that bit of dirt is finally filled in and no longer visible.
And (big day – lots of stuff done today!) the downstairs bathroom and closets were framed up in the old dining room space.
Made a decision to add an outside entrance to the cellar. It'll add some cost, but will definitely be worth it the next time I have to get a water heater or something heavy into the crawlspace.
