January 11 update

Here's a little recap on what we've accomplished this week.  It was a pretty productive week, especially the last three days of it.

Today I also cleaned out the fireplace, which was a delightful task.  I sucked out half a shop vac's worth of old brick, leaves, ash, rocks, and (proving that the old codger did burn his garbage as the neighbors alleged) some plastic-y foil wrappers.  Then I noticed the hole in the back of the fireplace, and, putting two and two together, went outside and opened the little door at the base of the chimney.  I dug somewhere between five and eight gallons of ash and cinders out of the tunnel between the fireplace and the door.  It just kept coming.  Gary (the chimney guy) and I agreed that it was a minor miracle that this place hadn't burned down, given the old man's negligence.