You never know unless you try, right?

Thought of a different way to do something, to make it an easier chore, only to find out you were WRONG! That happened Tuesday(Mike's day off) when we were preparing to clean our chimney. Mike had an idea, which I agreed seemed good, but were we ever so WRONG!

The idea was to brush the chimney, leaving the single wall portion in place, letting the soot fall into the bottom of the stove and then clean it out from there. Typically we remove the section of single wall pipe and I hold a garbage bag around the pipe and when Mike brushes the soot into the bag. Then Mike brushes and cleans the cap and single wall sections of pipe by hand with a wire brush over the outside garbage can. This of course is a messy job no matter how you look at it, I ALWAYS end up with soot on my face, hands and clothes. *sigh*

So we tried and found out that this new way created an even bigger mess! While Mike was brushing the soot, it was seeping out of the pipe( where the sections came together and at the base of the stove, where the pipe hooks into the stove) a fine black mist of fluffy soot, filled the air. I yelled at Mike but he couldn't hear me, so poor Cortney was running to get whatever towels she could fine to cover the areas leaking soot. By that time it was "To Late"! Cortney looked at me and began laughing so hard she almost fell down, make a picture in your mind of a 44 yr old woman standing on a step ladder holding three towels, COVERED with fine black soot! I mean to tell you I was covered, not only me but the hearth, the stove, the wall behind the stove, the floor around the stove, okay you get the picture! Mike comes in and sees me and asked what happened, he chuckles and begins removing the single wall section of pipe.He then heads out to clean the cap and this pipe, leaving me to clean up myself and as much of the mess as possible, so it didn't get tracked around. I put my shirt, pants, socks and slippers in the washer to soak, then had Mike blow out my hair with his air compressor( just until we were through, then I got a bath). I looked into the back of the stove and Oh my Goodness! It was FULL right up to the edge of where the back of the stove and pipe hook up. It was a fine fluffy black soot, PTL no sticky creosote. Now this all has to be removed through the front clean out port on the stove, scrapping it into our ash bucket. That's fine, but with every scrap into the bucket it filtered up into the air. Mike had Cortney get the vacuum and he held it running just inches above the ash pan, which seemed to help a lot. Now with three loads dumped from the ash bucket, now it was time to clean off the top, and sides of the oven, then again back to scrapping out ash into the ash pan( not nearly as dusty, PTL) All cleaned and everything put back together, I was thinking bath, OH, NO! not yet, now the vacuum is a mess,it's a bagless, the filter was black, the container was black and the screen inside was black! Then we also realized the refrigerator was all black on the front, the floors had a fine dusting of black soot, wall behind the stove was covered. So... after about 2 hours more of Mike and I cleaning and washing the floors, frig and walls I finally got into the tub. Whew! lesson learned that didn't work at all, but you never know unless you try, right, LOL!