- Local time
- 9:01 PM
- Joined
- May 14, 2011
- Messages
- 17,977
- Reaction score
- 34,568
- Location
- On the Ridge, TN
With QuickBpBp's recent reporting of his home's chimney fire, I got to thinking (as I'm sure some others did as well) that after 20 years, it might be time to check on our own chimney up here on the ridge - especially since I'd never even given it a thought in the past.
I figured, what the heck, can't be that bad, right?
Uh yeah....yeah, it can. Notice you can't even see daylight up in that thing?
Given recent financials around here, Ed was gonna be a chimney sweep, real quick like...
Well, except for the multi-millionaire actor part, of course.
(No, not so much actually, as it turned out - stay tuned).
(It should be interjected here that the wife's daughter and grandkids took off to do touristy things down towards Gatlinburg, leaving me alone at home to wrestle this chimney thing...well, me and the dog).
Weather got nice here and despite all sorts of orders that I'm not supposed to be
getting up on the roof of the house and all, I watched a couple YT videos and thought "piece of cake", got the cute brush with extension rods, shop vac, plastic sheeting and all that and set out.
(This is where you interject Morgan Freeman saying "it was at this moment - he knew - he done effed up")
I then proceeded to dang near slide off the roof a couple times (metal roofs are great and all, except for that whole "slippery" thing), scaring me good enough to remember the standing orders for me NOT to be up there.
Surrendering to my frailties, I then made arrangements for an actual chimney sweep to come on out. Real good dude, young fella with a great attitude and gung-ho spirit.
He gets out his stuff and up on the roof he goes and all is well....
until we get back inside to see the results in the fireplace and clean all that up, that is.
He fires up his shop vac and after my specifically asking if the filter for it was in place - proceeds to fill the house with a sooty fog when he fires it up.
Ed's face at that point...
Well, he's all apologetic and mortified and I just grab fans, open windows and commence to clean-up detail, not fussing.
He winds up doing a fine job and I get the place straightened up and off he goes - and we have a safe chimney - that's good.
I have a new-found darker complexion head to toe, some of which isn't scrubbing off so easy. Not so good, still haven't gotten the smell out of my head...
In the meantime, the brood still out having fun, I had gotten hungry and the cavalry wasn't coming (wife had already messaged me that I was "on my own" for dinner).
Tired, half-assed scrubbed and hungry - but still blessed with unseasonably warm weather - there was but one answer:
No, it's not much of a video, apologies there - but it had been one nasty, frustrating day and I just jumped in the GTX to fetch drive thru real quick.
When I got to the bottom of the ridge and paused to let her warm up a little, though - I had another of those little epiphanies that said "hey, grumpy - all of this ain't a bad thing, you know. Stop being resentful of the others having fun while you worked and appreciate that you're the one sitting in a GTX right now."
Yeah.
I wound up sitting there for a minute or two, just listening and looking, soaking it up.
It ain't a bad gig...
I figured, what the heck, can't be that bad, right?
Uh yeah....yeah, it can. Notice you can't even see daylight up in that thing?
Given recent financials around here, Ed was gonna be a chimney sweep, real quick like...
Well, except for the multi-millionaire actor part, of course.
(No, not so much actually, as it turned out - stay tuned).
(It should be interjected here that the wife's daughter and grandkids took off to do touristy things down towards Gatlinburg, leaving me alone at home to wrestle this chimney thing...well, me and the dog).
Weather got nice here and despite all sorts of orders that I'm not supposed to be
getting up on the roof of the house and all, I watched a couple YT videos and thought "piece of cake", got the cute brush with extension rods, shop vac, plastic sheeting and all that and set out.
(This is where you interject Morgan Freeman saying "it was at this moment - he knew - he done effed up")
I then proceeded to dang near slide off the roof a couple times (metal roofs are great and all, except for that whole "slippery" thing), scaring me good enough to remember the standing orders for me NOT to be up there.
Surrendering to my frailties, I then made arrangements for an actual chimney sweep to come on out. Real good dude, young fella with a great attitude and gung-ho spirit.
He gets out his stuff and up on the roof he goes and all is well....
until we get back inside to see the results in the fireplace and clean all that up, that is.
He fires up his shop vac and after my specifically asking if the filter for it was in place - proceeds to fill the house with a sooty fog when he fires it up.
Ed's face at that point...
Well, he's all apologetic and mortified and I just grab fans, open windows and commence to clean-up detail, not fussing.
He winds up doing a fine job and I get the place straightened up and off he goes - and we have a safe chimney - that's good.
I have a new-found darker complexion head to toe, some of which isn't scrubbing off so easy. Not so good, still haven't gotten the smell out of my head...
In the meantime, the brood still out having fun, I had gotten hungry and the cavalry wasn't coming (wife had already messaged me that I was "on my own" for dinner).
Tired, half-assed scrubbed and hungry - but still blessed with unseasonably warm weather - there was but one answer:
No, it's not much of a video, apologies there - but it had been one nasty, frustrating day and I just jumped in the GTX to fetch drive thru real quick.
When I got to the bottom of the ridge and paused to let her warm up a little, though - I had another of those little epiphanies that said "hey, grumpy - all of this ain't a bad thing, you know. Stop being resentful of the others having fun while you worked and appreciate that you're the one sitting in a GTX right now."
Yeah.
I wound up sitting there for a minute or two, just listening and looking, soaking it up.
It ain't a bad gig...