Ready for Santa

We realized our chimney was leaking this fall when the ceiling in the kitchen was leaking AGAIN. We had re-shingled the roof last year, so we knew it wasn't that. T got up on the roof and investigated, and suspected it was the chimney. We called in a professional, and sure enough, it was bad. It had been painted sometime before we moved in to "seal" the cracks. You can see in the picture below it was in bad shape...The mason explained something about moisture and condensing rather than all out dripping in, but I didn't really follow. Anyway, the bricklayer started his work on Veteran's Day and luckily the weather held out. Asher had a great time keeping him company while he was working and he even suckered the guy into giving him a ride on the Bobcat...several times.He finished the job in about 3 1/2 days. One day to tear down, two days to build, and 1/2 day to clean up and seal it. We are very happy with the results and even though you can't see a bit of it from the street, we love our new chimney...mostly because it keeps the water OUTside. So, we're in good shape now for Santa's visit.
And for any of you who haven't seen this, I thought I would share the following photo...A friend challenged Todd to a "chops" growing contest and this was the end result. Lovely, isn't it?