Utility Chimney is almost gone!

Here's the back of the house now -- it looks so sad without our old back porch, rickety as it was!



Above is the rot on the house created because they poured concrete steps right up against the side of the house. Just a little unexpected surprise (can you say "change order?") that we've discovered. Happily, though, the contractor says that things are going really well, so it's not that bad (though tell that to the guy who had to jack hammer the steps away in 90 degree weather last week!).



Downstairs. Here's our old hot water heater, which will be replaced by a side-venting one. The utility chimney will come away, so this whole area will open up for us.



Here's our kitchen. The plastic is covering up where the utility chimney used to be. Our contractor says he'll frame this in for us when all is done.

A full kitchen remodel is not in the picture for us -- we're really at the limit of our budget as it is (though the contractor is really wanting to do something for us.... maybe a later date!).

To keep dust to a minimum in our living spaces, there's now some zippered vinyl leading to the upstairs (we have to be sure to keep our inquisitive cats on THIS side of the vinyl -- Joey's filthy right now).

And here's the big hole in our upstairs. The utility chimney came down from the top down.

The former playroom, less a little carpeting (and the Nagel).

So things seem to be going along! The contractor is very happy with the progress so far. He is very eager to get to the fun part (for him), which is when he gets to cut the roof off and build fresh -- I can't imagine cleaning up old stuff is all that exciting. He thinks that he'll get to that phase in less than two weeks.

Man, I'm glad I finally started this blog... things are happening every single day!