Schneewagen Delivers. Chimney Repaired.

If you've been following the story line, you'll recall the Olaf struck a blow to our chimney a couple weeks ago. The repair crew was scheduled to come up last Wednesday, but US 2 was closed for 5 days due to massive snow dowing trees and powerlines. This morning, a week later, was the reschedule.

Katie met the fireplace-chimney crew at the Yodelin parking lot this morning and hauled them and their gear in to KnArrow Haus -- in three separate trips.

 

Katie at the end of the day after towing the crew's van
to US 2 from the Yodelin parking lot.

Road conditions on US 2 the morning of January 22, 2020.

Sammy the (ferocious) snow dog and Katie withy Schneewagen

Katie and Sammie in front of KnArrow Haus with the crew's repair materials
sitting on the snow in the background.

Schneewagen transported the fresh chimney sections, supplies and
snowshoes for the crew to KnArrow Haus.

The crew on the BIG ladder.

I wonder what OSHA says about 2 crew members
on a ladder in 6 feet of snow....?

Staging area for the chimney repair.

The (hopefully) fixed and rebraced chimney.

 A little snow on the back deck

Selfie-video after towing the chimney crew's rear wheel drive
van to US 2 from the Yodelin parking lot.

 Hopefully, that's the last we'll need to worry about the chimney for many years.

Schneewagen Extricated from 40" of Snow

Lowland snows all last week closed Highway 2 from the Eastside to Stevens Pass due to downed trees and powerlines. The fireplace repair guys were scheduled to come up last Wednesday, but with Highway 2 closed, they're rescheduled for this week.

Since we were up there to check on the KnArrow Haus on January 3rd, over 140 inches of snow have fallen, accumulating over 40 inches on the ground -- and on top of Schneewage. Devon and I went up late afternoon to dig out and attend the annual homeowners meeting.

Schneewagen is somewhere underneath this pile of snow.

Schneewagen resting peacefully.

Devon locating the front hood of Schneewagen.
His snow shoes are slightly above the level of the front hood. 

The front of Schneewagen uncovered under 40"+ of snow.

Schneewagen's roof was slightly deformed under the weight of the snow.

There were several rain and warming cycles that froze the snow to the cover over Schneewagen.

It took about an hour and a half of constant digging to be able to get in the doors. Our initial attempt to drive Schneewagen out of it's hole didn't work. We had to dig out about a foot in front of the front and rear tracks. Then it came out like a champ, and we were able to drive up to the KnArrow Haus and even plow some new trail in the thick blanket of new snow. There's been so much new snow that the entire neighborhood is otherworldly -- entirely changed in appearance, and so quiet with so much snow.

Olaf strikes a blow to the chimney

Got a message from my next door neighbor on Thursday evening that my chimney was a casualty in a snow shedding event off my roof.  It had made a loud noise, and when he went outside to see what had happend, he noticed the chimney sitting on the top of the snow pile.  He dragged it around to my garage door.

The top of the chimney with braces still attached. 

What's left of the chimney sticking up above the roof.

The chimney up the side of the house was also wrenched.

We borrowed a neighbor's ladder, but it wasn't long enough to get up to the roof. 
It was a 30 footer. Need a 36 footer at least. 

You can see the chimney supports are massively bent and were torn off at the base where they were mounted to the roof. 

The chimney cap was slightly bent, but I was able to bend it back in to shape without too much trouble.

When the fireplace installation contractor showed up this spring to install the supports I didn't keep good enough track of what they were doing. Instead of anchoring the braces to the top edge of the roof, they put them to the side in the main body of the roof.  Grrrr.

I'm working to get them up there as soon as possible with a tall ladder to get things rectified.