I had reached out to some chimney cleaning people near the Wisconsin house, and got one who said they'd come take a look.

They called yesterday and said they could come right over. I told them I'm not there, so give me some time. They beat me by about a half hour, not waiting for the agreed-to delay. The driveway is deep with snow, which is no problem for my big-wheeled 4x4 Jeep, but the berm at the end and the depth of the treads made previously limited their approach with their heavy van. As such, they couldn't bring in much of their gear down the 300-foot long driveway.

Nonetheless, they took a peek at the fireplace and faux wood-burning stove. They were able to quickly get the fireplace started, as I had been able to in the past, although I hadn't tried yet this trip as I let them lead the discovery. We left it on to both warm the house and see if it stayed lit. It stayed lit through the rest of the work.

They had some trouble, as expected, getting the stove to stay lit, although the pilot lit straight away. They pulled the faux glass door off the faux stove and got the flame to stay on. I kept opening the sliding glass door to ensure we wouldn't succumb to exhaust (which is what kept extinguishing the flame in the stove with the glass on), and they kept closing it because it's cold outside.

They found an abundance of bat droppings, and some bat carcasses, despite the stove being cleaned just a year prior, and cleaned it the best they could with the shop vac I had on hand. They agreed that the stovepipe seemed blocked and scrambled onto the porch's roof to check out the chimney cap. A bird had filled it almost completely with a sturdy nest. They also found the chimney was corroded where it meets the roof. And they commented how the stovepipe wasn't correctly installed inside, at the very least by not having any screws holding the sections of the pipe together, and possibly because of the proximity of one of the bends to the ceiling, although he did offer that the codes may have changed in the 40 years since the stove was installed. After they cleared the cap and pulled what they could from the top of the chimney, it started blowing smoke, as expected. They replaced the cap and suggested it would likely be fine until the birds return in the spring, but that we should still address it and the corroded bits as soon as possible. They reassembled the stove (putting the faux logs in differently, so now it's mostly just a flame burning and not as much of a pleasant faux wood fire).

They weren't prepared to visit the chimney over the fireplace, with the recent snow, melt, freeze, and snow again making the steeper pitch of the roof of the house dangerous, especially with their good gear more than 100 yards away across difficult snowy terrain. They did notice there wasn't any smoke coming out of any of the three caps on the chimney, suggesting they or the chimney itself was clogged. They commented on the placement of the logs on the fireplace burners, too, but didn't disassemble anything enough to rearrange them.

They suggested returning to clean the fireplace chimney and replace the stovepipe and its chimney when better weather returned, and after the driveway is cleared enough for them to bring their stuff closer to the house, noting that both had been burning for the few hours they were there, now that the bird nest is gone.

They also noted that neither unit has a fan, although both have the wiring and space for it, suggesting that having fans installed would better distribute the heat into the living spaces instead of just radiating from the glass. They also pointed out that the manufacturer of the appliances hasn't been around for like 15 year, and that finding specific parts for the stove and fireplace would be difficult. The stovepipe is fairly generic, he said, but the glass fronts, fan units, and even the burners might not be so well suited to generic fixtures. He did say the gas controls were fairly generic also, sitting simply between the delivery in the stove and source from the propane tank with standard fittings. While they are first a chimney cleaning company, they evidently also do this kind of unit installation, so groovy for me.

I asked for an estimate both on the anticipated chimney work, replacing the stove pipe, and optionally replacing either or both the stove and fireplace. With the new year coming this week, and cold weather prevailing, I suggested that waiting until next week or later would be fine. I offered that we could potentially spread out the more optional or difficult work, but agreed that replacing the corroded parts outside the porch with the stove should probably be done as it's another avenue for water to enter and cause trouble, and we've had enough water related trouble at the house. I said with longer notice I could ensure that the drive would be clear enough for them to get into the property, too.

A quick peek online suggests that a replacement stove will run a few hundred dollars, for a basic unit, running into the thousands for feature-heavy stoves. The kind of fireplace insert we have will probably start over a thousand dollars, which might be a bit much just to ensure we can replace the glass front or get a manufacturer-matching fan kit installed beneath.

I'll hold my deep thinking until the quotes arrive.