I have a little home improvement tale to tell, that ended up improving much more than I expected.
In my house there is a fireplace.
It cannot be used because some of the stones inside the chimney have fallen in.
So when I moved in, I put a bookcase in front of it and tried to deal with the amazingly tenacious drafts by putting batting, towels, paper barriers, and all manner of semi-effective detritus into the nooks and crannies.
The whole thing was like spider Disneyland. They had lovely places to hide and breed like…. rabbits. Only they were spiders. Several kinds. I could vacuum them AND their webs up one day, and they would be back the next.
Now, besides the frigid drafts in the winter and the spiders, which were a factor, I never really felt comfortable in that part of the house. I tried moving furniture, thought about buying a large area rug to freshen it up, and other arrangements that never did the trick. I felt bad about it too. What was wrong with me? Here was this rather nice room in my house that I couldn't feel at home in. It was a puzzle to me.
Then one Shabbat afternoon recently, I was browsing through a catalog of home decorating ideas, and I saw several rooms with fireplaces, working and not, that people had done really nice things with. I looked over at the arachnid brothel with a jaundiced eye and wondered what was really behind that bookcase.
You see, when I moved in, the firebox was covered up with two sections of four inch thick rigid insulation with a foil backing. I did not remove it. I just put the bookcase in front of it. So I had no idea what condition it was in.
Here's what it looked like right after I moved in:
Well, the next day, I started in one corner of the living room and made war. My weapons of choice? BOTH my vacuum cleaners. I took all the books off the bookcase and found a new place for it. I moved the furniture into a way that I thought would work if I WAS going to reclaim the fireplace.
Then I removed the big bulky pieces of insulation. I didn't even look into the firebox at first, I just hauled those things out to the front porch. When I came back in, I looked in there and saw something that was partially covered with leaves and acorns. I went to get my kitchen waste basket because there was quite a bit of stuff in there. I put on some rubber gloves and started scooping leaves when I finally saw it.
A mummified hawk.
Yep.
A dead hawk was lying there covered with leaves. It was a pretty good sized one too. At least 14 inches long. I was gobsmacked.
This house was uninhabited for well over a year before I moved in, so there was no one here to notice what had gone on in the fireplace.
I didn't think to take a picture of it. I was in a state of shock and just wanted it OUT of there and into the garbage. It was quite gruesome to tell you the truth.
I spent quite some time clearing out the dirt, and then unscrewed the vent plates that cover up a fan system I think is called a 'heatalator'. I found an ash clean out door on the bottom of the firebox that I'm pretty sure was the source of all that winter chill. Outside in the stones of the chimney is a little iron door where you could scoop out ashes.
I finished cleaning the living room and arranging all the furniture. It was a long day. But I was hopeful.
Here's what it looked like at the end of the first day...
So, the next day I went to the lumber yard and bought a bale of real house insulation, the old fashioned kind with paper on one side and itchy fiberglass on the other. I cut pieces to fit in all the nooks and crannies, I put a piece in the trapdoor and then I put three pieces of insulation in the outdoor clean out thingy.
I also stuffed a piece up into the top of the firebox to keep the warm air from my house from going up the chimney, and added a piece of cardboard over that… because, well, see the below reference about obsessive behavior...
I bought new screws for the vent covers, because the old ones were too short to hold them securely and they were all crooked and off center. I painted them black and put them on right.
Here it is after that part...
The fireplace was almost done, but Sunny needs a bath … badly. *
So the hearth was dirty and had paint missing. Lucky for me, I had paint on hand from the chicken coop project so I painted it, and the white panel above the firebox.
Now it was time to do something with that black empty space.
Yesterday, early, Sunny and I hiked up, almost to the top of the ridge behind our house to the manzanita patch.
I found just what I was looking for...
Then today, I bought two things, a rubber mat to cover the offending draft producing trap door, [because I'm a little anal retentive at this point in the project, I admit it] to block off all possible intrusions of cold air. And I found a string of teeny tiny LED lights that run off batteries.
Behold… the fruit of my obsessions...
Now my fireplace is made of awesome!
And here's the part that has surprised me. I now feel totally at home in that room. I go in there and read, I watch movies, I hang out. I feel peaceful.
I think the presence of the dead hawk was disturbing the atmosphere in that room. How was I to know?
It feels good to have re-claimed a part of my own house. To have done acts of restoration. All by myself. Just the way I wanted to, indulging my penchant for nit picky details.
Booyah!
Oh yeah….
Rest in peace Mr. Hawk.
***
*She goes to the wonder working groomers on Friday. :-)
Well, the next day, I started in one corner of the living room and made war. My weapons of choice? BOTH my vacuum cleaners. I took all the books off the bookcase and found a new place for it. I moved the furniture into a way that I thought would work if I WAS going to reclaim the fireplace.
Then I removed the big bulky pieces of insulation. I didn't even look into the firebox at first, I just hauled those things out to the front porch. When I came back in, I looked in there and saw something that was partially covered with leaves and acorns. I went to get my kitchen waste basket because there was quite a bit of stuff in there. I put on some rubber gloves and started scooping leaves when I finally saw it.
A mummified hawk.
Yep.
A dead hawk was lying there covered with leaves. It was a pretty good sized one too. At least 14 inches long. I was gobsmacked.
This house was uninhabited for well over a year before I moved in, so there was no one here to notice what had gone on in the fireplace.
I didn't think to take a picture of it. I was in a state of shock and just wanted it OUT of there and into the garbage. It was quite gruesome to tell you the truth.
I spent quite some time clearing out the dirt, and then unscrewed the vent plates that cover up a fan system I think is called a 'heatalator'. I found an ash clean out door on the bottom of the firebox that I'm pretty sure was the source of all that winter chill. Outside in the stones of the chimney is a little iron door where you could scoop out ashes.
I finished cleaning the living room and arranging all the furniture. It was a long day. But I was hopeful.
Here's what it looked like at the end of the first day...
So, the next day I went to the lumber yard and bought a bale of real house insulation, the old fashioned kind with paper on one side and itchy fiberglass on the other. I cut pieces to fit in all the nooks and crannies, I put a piece in the trapdoor and then I put three pieces of insulation in the outdoor clean out thingy.
I also stuffed a piece up into the top of the firebox to keep the warm air from my house from going up the chimney, and added a piece of cardboard over that… because, well, see the below reference about obsessive behavior...
I bought new screws for the vent covers, because the old ones were too short to hold them securely and they were all crooked and off center. I painted them black and put them on right.
Here it is after that part...
The fireplace was almost done, but Sunny needs a bath … badly. *
So the hearth was dirty and had paint missing. Lucky for me, I had paint on hand from the chicken coop project so I painted it, and the white panel above the firebox.
Now it was time to do something with that black empty space.
Yesterday, early, Sunny and I hiked up, almost to the top of the ridge behind our house to the manzanita patch.
I found just what I was looking for...
Then today, I bought two things, a rubber mat to cover the offending draft producing trap door, [because I'm a little anal retentive at this point in the project, I admit it] to block off all possible intrusions of cold air. And I found a string of teeny tiny LED lights that run off batteries.
Behold… the fruit of my obsessions...
Now my fireplace is made of awesome!
And here's the part that has surprised me. I now feel totally at home in that room. I go in there and read, I watch movies, I hang out. I feel peaceful.
I think the presence of the dead hawk was disturbing the atmosphere in that room. How was I to know?
It feels good to have re-claimed a part of my own house. To have done acts of restoration. All by myself. Just the way I wanted to, indulging my penchant for nit picky details.
Booyah!
Oh yeah….
Rest in peace Mr. Hawk.
***
*She goes to the wonder working groomers on Friday. :-)