Improvements...Finally

At the end of last winter, we had our chimney cleaned and inspected. It was strongly suggested that the lintel inside be repaired and that the chimney outside be rebuilt from the flashing up as the brick was scaling and breaking apart allowing moisture to penetrate. Before the cold winter set in, we had the lintel repaired. But how do you go about finding a mason to do the brick work? Since Jeremy's friend is a builder, we got the name of his mason who came out 3 or 4 weeks ago to look at the job. He took a sample of the brick and said he would call us with an estimate. We haven't heard from him since.

Someone demolished Jeremy's brick mail box and the same mason had performed the same disappearing act on him. So, Jeremy found someone else, who rebuilt his mailbox, then called me this morning to come and look at my chimney today. From the phone call, I deducted that he was Spanish and I was excited to try out some of my Spanish on him. After a few Spanish pleasantries he said, "Oh, habla espanol?" "Un poquito...estoy aprendiendo espanol." (a little...I'm learning Spanish) So he decides to switch completely to espanol while I stand there like an idiot with my eyes slowly glazing over. Luckily, he saw that my vocabulary was rather limited and began speaking in English again. Whew! But we did switch back and forth some and he patiently allowed me to practice. He was willing to start oy (today...not really sure of the spelling), went to buy the brick, and returned with an amigo. After a lot of pounding, they have just about got the old brick off.

Leaving quite a mess in the yard.

And I don't think we can get an exact match on the brick. But hey, as long as we can continue to burn wood in our fireplace, I'll be happy.

Yikes! They're awfully close to the satellite dish. They'd better be muy careful. Gotta have my television!