Among other tasks completed this weekend, the biggest was getting the old, 1940's deep freezer out of the basement.  It's a Sear/Kenmore Coldspot freezer. There's a Sears Archive advertisement for a similar one here. Note, however, that the one I had was about twice the size of that pictured.

Eighty inches long.  34"H x 32"D (not including hinges). There are two compartments -- the main one is about two thirds the length of the freezer. On the right is a smaller compartment above the compressor. The compressor itself probably weighs 50 lbs. The whole thing weighed several hundred pounds. It was non-functional -- the bottom (which was steel) had rusted out and there was no freon left in the system.

On Saturday, we took the lids off by unscrewing the hinges. These things have super strong springs on them (so that the lids lift easily). The first couple snapped off with such force that we were afraid we would break a finger if it got in the way. Then I realized that I could remove the last screw with the lid up so that the hinge was already open. That was still a two-person job.  After some careful measuring, we determined that there is no way it came into the house in one piece without removing some windows. Or maybe there was an old cellar door on the house when they put it in. In any case, I'd rather demolish an old freezer than remove windows and their framing. So we got some blades, borrowed a sawzall and invited a friend over (with some experience and more nerve) to help out.

Sunday, around noon we started in with the Sawzall. The outer shell of the freezer is aluminum and we cut the shell right down the middle. A little pry action and I could get at all the insulation. This is 1940's fiberglass insulation. Even though I had gloves on it got on my arms and legs. A cold shower later helped clean it off (cold helps keep the pores from opening). Then, we cut through the copper pipes and finally tore through the larger compartment. Piecewise, I carried it all outside to be dumped. In fact with only a few cuts (and about one blade per cut) we were able to get it all out the basement door which helped immensely in keeping the mess to a limited area. The surprising part was that the hardest thing to cut were the copper pipes. They kept bending out of the way of the Sawzall so one person had to hold them while another cut.

I think we were really lucky. It only took a couple hours to get the thing out of the house. The mess was pretty well contained and not too hard to clean up. I am really glad it's done now. It would have been much harder to do after we put more stuff in the basement.

Next I need to figure out how to remove the old furnace (this is 1930's era, but it comes apart in sections). And then get the washer and dryer down there and out of the kitchen. I'd like to do the washer/dryer first, but they would be in the way of the furnace removal. Is this when I call in the pros?