I had to brace the west end of the porch roof while I rebuilt the posts and the concrete where the rested. I started on the west end and worked my way around to the chimney.

Detail of the new bottom railing.

The project took more than one summer, three if I remember correctly.

This is the new support posts. later they were enclosed to make the proportions look right.

This shows the progress near the point where I started on the chimney. By the looks of the flowers this was late summer.

This is the start of removing the outside brick from the chimney. I worked from the bottom up until I got to the porch roof, then went to the top and came down.

This is the old fire box for the first floor fireplace. It was totally replaced. I had just started up with two layers of brick.

This shows the progress at the base of the chimney. I braced the bricks above where I was working, because the bricks on the left side were seperating from the wall, and it could all come down.

This shows the chimney tile that I installed to replace the soft brick that was there before. It has to go to the left to get around the fireplace on the second floor.

This is the new fire box with a damper added. (something the old one did not have).

This is the scaffold in place to start removing the brick from the top.

This some of the brick removed from the top. A slow process.

All of the brick has been removed, and I am ready to start back up.

All the brick has been relpaced ( I had to buy some replacement brick for the ones that wer broken. Tile for all three fireplaces was installed ( the 3rd floor fireplace is closed off).

The chimney is finished.

The last section of railing was installed after the chimney was finished.

The finished product.