The Fire Has Gone Cold

For those of you that have not been following the continuing saga of the fireplace.

Check

HERE

for the background on some of the drama.

Or

HERE

I really thought that the worst of it was over.

The fire would be out soon.

I could clean the living room.

The rest of the house.

The front porch.

Get a new rug.

Oh, the gas bills were low.

But.

The rug was ruined.

$$$$

Chiropractor bills from back issues that I blamed on unloading firewood.

$$$$

Initial cost of woodburner.

$$$$

Continual vacuuming

%$&*

All ok, because the gas bills were really LOW.

However,

lately there has been the issue of the smoke.

Lots and lots and lots of smoke.

Not up the chimney smoke...

in your face, choking you out of your recliner at night,

SMOKE!

I thought that something was wrong.

JWS just kept jamming more wood in there.

What do I know?

Finally, on Wednesday...

I slide him this little post-it note with the name of a chimney sweep on it.

Talking to Shelby on Wednesday night, we laugh about Dick Van Dyke/Mary Poppins showing up.

So Thursday arrives.

Never mind that JWS schedules the time for them to come at the same time as

I have a truck to put vinyl on...

I have Kendall and have to arrange for a sitter for her during that time...

Jenn, the only other "employee' at work is driving my MIL to dialysis....

someone has to meet the kindergarten bus....

we do have a business to keep open...

and

the chimney sweep is going to dance across our roof singing

"Chim, chiminee, chim chiminee, chim chim chiree.

A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be..."

Got that song stuck in your head now?

Now.

The Exasperating Part of the Story.

The chimmey is clogged.

Really clogged.

The insert in the chimney is no good.

It was not installed right.

Cost, you say?

About $200 MORE than it would have cost to install it right initially,

plus,

the cost of the dance episode of Mary Poppins that happened yesterday.

You might say,

"Go back on the initial installer and make them make it right!"

Well.

in order to save $$$$,

guess who installed it themselves.

That is right.

JWS

and an Amish Man named Fritz.

Moral of the story.

If the

JWS-Fritz Chimney Installation Co.

appears at your door to install your chimney,

check them out at the Better Business Bureau.

I am having them blacklisted.

And now on to more happy things,

because I am so not completely over the last story.

Here is Kendall at work yesterday.

The only thing that really entertained her all day long was this box.

Opening and Closing,

Packing

and

Opening and Closing some more.

See the remnants of Tyler's hopscotch game on the right?

The kids love the sidewalk chalk on the floor of the shop.

Open

Closed

And the resident executive.

He was the only one with a desk job yesterday.

Nothing creative to show.

Bet you don't even have to ask "Why?"