DISMANTLED

Most of my carpentry projects involve putting things together. This one was the opposite - demolish Chris' fireplace mantle. I didn't have the foresight to take a BEFORE picture, but Nicole was smart enough to snap this DURING photo:

The trick was removing the mantle without accidentally ripping down the entire wall — a tall order because there was no access to the screws holding the mantle to the wall. I suspected we could get most of it down with a power saw and a crowbar — but I guess it's like the old saying goes... "When you all you have is a power saw and a crowbar, every problem seems like a mantle that needs to be demolished."

Here's the AFTER photo.

Actually, all of the walls stayed up — here's the real AFTER photo.

As you can see, it's a total disaster: a perfectly good mantle was replaced by Paul Moyer.
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