In one of the rooms in the basement, there were two hulking oil tanks left over from before the prior owners switched from oil to gas heating. They were about a quarter full of oil, just sitting there, taking up half the room. (In the picture you can see the coal chute from before the owners switched from coal to oil).

We wanted to get rid of the tanks, especially since they still had oil in them. Nasty, stinky oil. I found someone who would take the oil for heating and the tanks for recycling as scrap iron.

We probably emptied close to 100 gallons of oil out of the tanks, 5 gallons at a time. Some of the pipes came off with a pipe wrench while others had to be cut with a band saw.

Then we took the legs off the empty tanks, put a ramp on the basement stairs, and slid them up the stairs. We had to remove the back door and screen door so they’d fit.

Turns out on of the tanks was rusting through and slowly leaking, and eventually would have dumped its contents on the floor. Yuck.

But they’re gone now! Yet another item to check off the home inspection list. After the rewiring is completed, all that remains on the list of issues observed during the home inspection will be fixing a couple of cracked windowpanes in the basement.