Prerequisites

The reliable but inefficient 1950s vintage boiler.

I recall paging through the college catalogs of all the cool courses I could take at the university.  There were so many interesting topics, but after reading the course descriptions I would encounter the prerequisites for registering.  It often was some obscure course in a discipline I had no background in, and so I was restricted in the areas I was allowed to pursue.  As with many things, this is good and bad.  It kept the classroom at a minimal background knowledge level, but it excluded extra disciplinary contributions.  Oh well, Mayan calendar interpretation will just have to get along without the advice of astronomers, mathematicians and geologists.

The limits and conditions of dependencies and prerequisites are everywhere.  In this project I found that there are chains of dependencies.  When I negotiated the price of the house, it included a discount for the price of replacing the roof.  I consulted with roofers.  They could not do the job until the chimney was repaired.

Repairing the chimney would incur an expense.  I could fix the chimney, but I had plans that would (eventually) replace the 1950s vintage furnace with a modern high efficiency one that would not need a chimney.  I also wanted the internal space that the chimney currently consumed.  So to replace the roof, I decided that I would first need to remove the chimney (rather than repair it).

But removing the chimney means that the furnace and water heater must be replaced.  After consulting with heater/plumbing companies to get bids, it became apparent that the  existing boiler and distribution pipes, containing and wrapped by asbestos, needed to be removed.  Removing asbestos requires the services of a licensed asbestos abatement company.

So this is where I am.  To remodel the kitchen (and claim the chimney space for it), and to replace the roof, I need to remove the chimney, which requires that the boiler be replaced, which requires that the old boiler and pipes be removed, which requires that the asbestos be abated.

I contacted several asbestos removal companies.  Their prerequisites were for hot and cold running water (to meet the protocol of asbestos abatement procedures and regulations).

I hope this hasn’t created an impossible loop of prerequisites.