Three actions are on tap for Excavation Day 5:

• Demolition of the original, 1925 south wall of the house
• Inspection of the rebar and trench for footers
• Pouring concrete for footers

Regarding the first item, the crew started early enough that we could capture the action.

Going . . .

Going . . .

Gone!

Rebar was laid in the footer trenches and the city code inspector approved it that morning.

Poured footers:

A before shot of the furnace room with the original 1925 back wall, before demo began:

The same location, 5 days into demolition:

Demo of the chimney for the boiler exhaust also began (although it won’t be completely removed for another week).

The pile under the exhaust vent is actually decades-worth of willow oak leaves from the Wolfe Street side of the house that have blown into the chimney and created their own little Pleistocene era layer of leaf fossils.

A legacy of hydronics past. These are radiator supply and return pipes from the baseboard radiator in the kitchen that were routed through holes cut in to the old brick exterior wall. The bricks couldn’t be removed without damaging the pipes (we’re still living in the house, and could use the heat, inasmuch as it’s February), so these hangers-on remain for now.