Chimney comes down!

When purchasing the property we learned that the chimney in the attic area was badly cracked and needed repair or removal. We did much research on if we could have it fixed just to keep it historically for the house. However that would have probably costed around $5000. So since we no longer needed it for the heating or water heater as now with their replacement it could all be vented out the walls we decided to have it removed since that was a much cheaper plan. In knowing we had to have the chimney removed that also spurred us to do the water heater and hvac replacement now rather than waiting. So mid August was the time. In figuring this out Greg thought it would be a great idea to put some more ventilation up there. In our quest to try to do things a little greener we found out about solar attic fans. Found a way to order one and purchased one to fill part of the hole the chimney was removed from. We are hoping on those sunny summer days it helps to move the attic air around more than just the ridge and gable vents and help to keep the attic cooler.
On chimney removal day I could only get off part of the day as I was swamped at the lab with botulism and other samples. Luckily Greg's parents were free and offered to come help Greg pound the mortar off the bricks being removed so we can in the future reuse them. The day went off with out any problems the guys did a great job taking layer by layer down from the top into the attic and then fixing the hole and adding the solar fan. So it is a little sad to lose the 108 yr old chimney but it is still in the center of the house down to the basement and we hope to use that to run new electrical and things like that when we get to that point.