Chapter 9 - Chimney Demolition

The city of Las Vegas is nestled down in a valley surrounded by small mountains, so unless the wind blows, the smog can tend to build up over the city. For this reason, over 20 years ago the city outlawed wood-burning fireplaces in an effort to lessen our air pollution. However, this home was built before this ban. It’s three wood-burning fireplaces were constructed of brick and cement, the kind of towers that remain standing even if the house is destroyed by wind or fire. Our architect wanted to open up the family room and master bedroom by eliminating two of the fireplaces (the other is in the great room), but a simple eraser stoke of his pencil was nothing compared to the effort to actually bring down these rock monuments.

Removing the decorative stone on the inside of the fireplaces was a chore in themselves. The only way to safely demolish a two-story chimney was to start outside at the top and remove it brick-by-brick, one at a time. Armed with sledge hammers and a 50lb jack hammer, the two Steven’s climbed to the roof and began the arduous work of chiseling each brick from the stack and then tossing the cement, brick and stone to a pile in the back yard. Luckily for us the weather was mild. Each of us took turns removing a layer of bricks, trading off to spell each other as we worked our way down to the ground. The entire process took two complete days to accomplish. Believe me, we were both spent at the end of it all! I’m proud to say that I kept up with the younger kid half my age! As we look at the hole in the house now where the chimney once was, we still high-five each other for bringing the beast down! I guess its one of those bonding experiences.

With the brick and cement down from the house and in a huge pile in the back yard, the next challenge was to load all of the rubble into waste dumpsters to be hauled away. We thought and thought how best to do this, even considering hiring laborers min. wage to do it for us, but that didn’t seem right. We got the idea to rent a bobcat and use it to scoop the debris up and load it into the bins. We had the bobcat for the whole day, and I’ve go to admit that I had a blast driving it around! It was a little undersized, so it didn’t pick the larger bricks up very well. We often had to manually load the scoop with the bricks, but then we could easily drive the bobcat out to the street and dump everything into the two trash bins. I even made Mitzi drive the bobcat, and after a few tries she got the hang if it all and did a great job. We were just finishing up with the last of the pile at the end of our day when the machine sprung a hydraulic leak and we had to shut it down for the night. All in all, what an overall job!

Chapter 8 - Let the Demolition Begin!!

Where to begin? Just about everything inside and outside of the house is going to be ruined, removed or renovated. So, armed with sledge hammers, crow bars, shovels, pick axes, jack hammers and of course, our safety glasses, we descended on Lisa Lane like a pack of rioting revolutionaries. We took no prisoners and began demolishing everything in our path.

We enlisted some help from friends and family as part of our crew. Steven Chidister, a 24 year old student needing a part time job is the muscles on this job. Steve's nieces, Megan and Paige Coffey were also fantastic helpers in the clean-up department and earned money for Girl's Camp.
First things first, the carpet and tile throughout the house! We started with the tile in the kitchen and family room a.k.a. Tiki lounge by using a jackhammer. Steve got the technique down by tilting the hammer just right and popping the tile off in one piece which made it easier to take out to the industrial size dumpster.

The Kitchen was next on the list. The cabinets came off the walls pretty easily with a few blows of the sledge hammer. There is someting very theraputic about just busting things up! Because we had the jack hammer, the men started in on the fireplaces - the black lava rock downstairs as well as the white quartz fireplace in the master bedroom. Rather than carry the rock down the staircase, we just threw the depris over the front balcony.


A couple days later, Steve completely shocked me when I came home from work to find he had taken down the 3rd and largest fireplace in the living room all by himself. He had chiselled off the dense, orange stone - all 2 stories, 2 walls of it. Every inch of him was completely covered in white concrete and stone dust - all of his hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, skin and clothes. He looked about 79 years old but from this sneak preview, I am happy to say that he will be a very handsome old man.
Demolition moved to the bathrooms, where we destroyed all toilets, sinks, cabinets, floors and all but one tub. Yes, the Love Tub is gone. We did observe a moment of silence.



Steve & I at the end of a dirty demolition day

Chapter 7 - Yes, we have a plan

Ok, so here we are - a gigantic lemon on our hands and we are about to make wonderful lemonade. The first thing we have done is plan the new palace. We purchased a few dozen magazines, ripping out pages of bathrooms, bedrooms, entrances, patios, landscaping and kitchens. We've walked through the house a millon times and discussed the different possiblities and designs. With our resource book, we came up with several very good ideas of what we would like to do for "curb-appeal" for both the front and back side of the house.

We then took all of our ideas, plans and pictures to the architect, David Heinz. He took precise measurements of the house as well as research the exact locaiton of our septic tank's leach field in order to produce the blue-prints of the property. His own ideas were wonderful, creative and we were very happy with the overall plans.

This blueprint is of the front of house. As you can see, we are going to make a Grand Entrance out of the current gated entry by building a rock portico and increasing the doors from 8 ft to 14 ft. We are going to add some charm to the front and back of the house with wrought-iron railings and balconies.

On the front of the house, there is a small, sweet Romeo-Juliet balcony, replacing the present narrow veranda that is covered in worn artifical outdoor grass. The balcony will have new French doors. The ugly broken planter boxes in front of the house will be replaced with rock boxes filled with well-groomed bushes.

Because the house is slightly elevated, the back is easily seen from the road. So, for the "wow-factor", we plan to have a beautiful half-circle balcony with columns. The family room right off the kitchen will have a wall of French doors and windows that lead to the patio underneath the balcony.

Hopefully with the rock, new railing, new paint and landscaping and a few other embellishments, we will transform this old Spanish style into a refreshed Tuscan retreat.

And that's just the outside!