Chim Chim Cher-ee

Saturday was a working-in-the-yard-and-getting-ready-for-*gasp* winter day. When we bought our house we were happy that it had a fireplace. It is a good old wood burning fireplace. It is in a room we don’t spend a lot of time in, so we didn’t use it at all last year. But I wanted to be able to use it in case we needed to, like if the power went out or something in the cold, cold, winter. But I was also afraid to start a fire in there having no idea what shape the chimney was in. I had no idea if anyone had ever used the chimney, or ever cleaned the chimney, so I was afraid we would start a fire and fill our house with smoke. I didn’t know if there were birds living in the chimney or what. So I decided we were going to have to sweep it before we had our first fire. Not a big deal, since I have swept a chimney or two in my day (Ok, just two, but that isn’t too bad) and my Dad had the stuff at his house.

So we borrowed the chimney brush and made our way onto the roof. We did notice that we have a really nice view from the roof. We need to get ourselves an observation deck up there :-) We also discovered that the chimney had a nice cover on it. That was good because it meant it was less likely that there were any creatures living in there. We took the top off and ran the brush down. I have never in my life seen or even imagined a cleaner chimney. They must have never used it! There was a very small amount of soot on the cover, and a little tiny bit of ash fell down when we swept it out. But other than that – it was super clean! Now we have to have a fire!

While we were on the roof we decided to check out the rain gutters, since BJ had informed me that the water was running out everywhere but down the drain. And yep, the front gutter was still filled to the brim with water from the rain earlier that week. My very wonderful and brave husband walked over to the edge of the roof and stuck his hand in the disgusting water to see what the problem was. The problem was a racquetball that was acting as a very nice plug for the drain. He pulled that out (along with a bunch of muddy leaves) and the water began flowing. Ahhhh – the joys of home ownership!