Earlier this year we finally arranged a well overdue chimney cleaning for our basement woodstove. The results were both good and bad; the chimney was totally clean and not a dangerous mess as we had suspected, but the woodstove itself could not be WETT certified so our insurance would not cover us using it. The stove seemed to be working well, but without the insurance coverage if we did lose the house in a fire that originated in the woodstove or chimney it wouldn’t be covered. Upgrading the fireplace to a certifiable model would involve replacing the entire stove, the exposed piping downstairs, and to totally enclose the exposed chimney that runs through the living room upstairs as those features are no longer allowed. We didn’t feel comfortable using the stove knowing it wasn’t insurable, and the cost of replacing it was too great, so we just decided to remove it and instead install a heat pump at some point. 

We were worried the elevated concrete pad would be difficult to remove, but it was just sitting on the concrete slab floor! Thank goodness! J smashed it up and after we removed the concrete and vacuumed all the gross dust, it looked amazingly good. 

This concrete and brick dust has been driving me crazy since we removed the brick backdrop several years ago. So glad to have this room finally clean! This area is being turned into my studio and I’m very, very excited about it.