Screen Door, Tile Floor

July 18, 2020

Busy day today! We started the morning off with a fireplace guy, who came to check out the state of the three fireplaces we have in the house.

We have two smaller fireplaces near the front of the house, and it turns out the chimney for both was taken down really low, and then capped off with tar paper. SO to get these chimneys to function again as either wood-burning or gas log fireplaces would require re-building this stack up (and building it up a significant amount).

We have an alternative option of putting in a gas insert, which is what we’re considering.

With the back door and hinges painted, Liz and I helped hang the door in place again. With Bob’s help, we got the thing sitting well, and it now opens and shuts without catching.

Afterwards, in the basement, Liz was putting on the final touches to the screen door for the back porch: the screen itself. While she was doing this, I moved a few things downstairs from the dining room and started to demo up the tile hearth in front of the main fireplace.

This was a dusty job, and I spent a good amount of time hauling out debris (felt like the good old demo days), and also clearing out the shop vac filter.

Particularly for tasks like today, that shop vac continues to be worth its weight in gold. Triple even, since the thing itself is pretty light when it’s empty.

A few times came off during the process, which Liz saved. This one is actually a tile Liz found in the backyard (we’ve still been unable to explain that).

A few of the tiles looked to have been replaced, and we found some of the original just “out back.” No idea.