First steps to a shed

So we know we want a shed (though we're not totally sure anymore if we're getting one this year - thanks taxes...). And we know we want it on the already existing concrete pad at the back of the house. The problem is, there's a brick oven back there, firmly rooted in place. I was loath to get rid of it because it really is cute and something I always said we would use "one day." But approaching 10 years in this house and no plans to ever make something of it, D was not so sentimental. He considered it an obstacle to getting our long-desired storage. So down it came.

Over the course of the last three weeks or so, he took it apart piece by piece. This was the starting point:

With a chisel and a mallet, he managed to free large blocks of masonry. At first, he tried to go brick by brick, but realized that they would never break down so neatly. So instead, he went for manageable chunks:

 The chimney/tower part, down on the ground:

 More of the base removed:

 As the brick oven came down, the debris pile went up...

 Until finally the debris pile was all that remained.

Here's another view, with the oven scraped away, including the masonry at the bottom that glued it in place on the concrete. We still have the debris and may slowly bring it to the curb on trash day. We considered building up the walls around our soon-to-be vegetable garden, until D did some reading and learned that these blocks could have asbestos in them - at last the inner ones that contained the hottest part of the oven. Better safe than sorry - certainly not something we want as a retaining wall holding in the soil that is growing our summer veggies.

Next up, deciding if we are going to buy this year or not and working on the permitting if so.

Spring is has arrived, slowly but surely, and we're getting in lots of time outside in the yard. First up was our snowdrops, well after the last snows but still arriving while it was quite cold. Our neighbor gave these to us and they really cheer up the area at the side of the house where we keep our garabage bins.