He said what we pretty much knew.

Our house inspector looked in the chimney and said it was bricked off.

Much later I was thinking about the pocket doors that were stripped from the house when the PO's were closing on the house in the 1960's, and wondering how a door slid into the wall on the left of the fireplace, since a chimney should be in the way. Which made me investigate. Leading to the realization that the chimney is offset to the right, it connects to the tiny chimney coming up from the basement, and the bricked off looking part is actually open on the right. The cobwebs were dancing in the breeze when I opened the flue. The bricked off looking part had soot on the brick.

Initially the chimney sweep even thought it was bricked off, then realized how it diverts to the right. Then he asked if the old lady that lived here had a day care. He was remembering our neighbor 2 doors down, who has the same wacky chimney. Guess they were only built on our street? He said because of the way it's set up he can't even look in it to tell us anything, and didn't charge us for the visit. He recommended a cap for keeping animals out, which we knew it needed.

But the best part is that he said it should be no problem to put in a pellet stove and vent it up that chimney, a very different answer than the house inspector saying it was bricked off and completely un-useable. And a pellet stove would be greener, which is awesome. He also noticed how perfect our stairs are set up to carry heat from the fireplace upstairs and said we could probably heat the whole house with stove, and that his highest heating bill last year was just over 100$. All in all, perfect. The fireplace is TINY, and could never heat the whole house in the first place.

Unfortunately we have to get over $10,000 worth of electrical work done on our 1920's Firetrap. And raise the porch. And get a truckload off fill to divert water from the foundation. And replace the porch floor.

Then again even with the electrical work and the porch and the stove, the house would still be under $70,000. And being able to resell it with NO knob and tube wiring, or scary spliced parts, or burn marks on the wall above outlets and everything electrical being up to code will pay off with no problem, and so would the stove. (And who doesn't love an un-rotted porch that's not painted with chipping lead under rotted carpet?)

Maybe today we'll go look at pellet stoves...

we are jen, joe, amelia, and bloomer. i am jen. joe is the hubby, amelia is a 1 and 1/2 year old, and bloomer is amelia's 9 week old puppy. who won't house train. moving into a new house.

we are waiting. seems that closing on the house will take forever. the bank didn't give our lawyer a paper he needed so he never started the title search. Then everyone was ready to roll except for that, and he hadn't even started and said it would take 3 weeks. joe tried calling everyone involved to see if those online title search in 24 or 72 hour things would be acceptable, and no-one said no, but everyone passed the buck and said it was up to someone else, who never had a problem with it, but why throw away a few hundred dollars to find out they all have no idea what they're saying?

Meanwhile... we are trying to get an early occupancy agreement. the owners are the 5 sons of the last occupants who have now both died, and they are willing, but waiting for their lawyer to decide about liability issues.

we have knob and tube wiring throughout, and it's not a problem to insure in utica,ny where we live, but we need grounded outlets put in, and there's no overhead lights in the 4 bedrooms upstairs, just ton overhead at the landing at the top of the stairs, and in the bathroom.

With the early occupancy we hope to get the electrical done, see about gutters (house has none), we need to rip out carpet up and down stairs, and raise the porch. And add dirt to run water away from the house. Pressure wash the back porch. Rip the green carpet/astroturf off the front porch and see the flooring. Rip out 60's or 70's walpaper. put in cork flooring in the kitchen, get rid of the zbrick in the kitchen, and tear out the cabinets, and paint EVERYTHING. or so it seems.

we'll settle for grounded outlets and lights at move-in, and hopefully have the carpet out, so we're not ripping it out while our furniture is already there.

Still need to decide if we want to test the "vinyl" for asbestos in the kitchen, or just ignore the possibility of what lies beneath (besides poison) and put down cork. Which seems safest with a baby.

And we need to do all this with a baby and a puppy.

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!