I'm delighted you're liking this one so far. I wrote a novel about a year ago, and after some deliberation I decided to do a full re-write, because while the general story was good, it could be so much better. Also, I've improved a lot since finishing it, so it's good to kind of hit the idea again.
The scope has been narrowed a fair bit, and the old one is going be cherry-picked for some good ideas, while the vast majority of it is being totally changed.
Awesome! Good idea to spin off what worked into this new stuff, it helps to upcycle old writing for sure.