I think you're in a difficult position. When you explain it here, you sound like you're just trying to get rid of some of the cruft; but that's almost certainly not how others (at your job) will view it. They're going to perceive you as saying, "Gee, I couldn't help noticing that all your code sucks eggs, and so I rewrote it all. Hope you don't mind." I know you're *not* saying that, but you can pretty well count on people feeling like that's what you're implying.