Porch Masonry Project

This is how the bricks looked when we moved into this house in 2006.

I believe there used to be a set of brick steps here that were removed, but I could find nothing in any pictures I've been able to find. This also would have been a good spot to step into a wagon, though this neighborhood was built just as cars were coming into use (1910s). So, we don't really know what the original design looked like. With the width of modern cars, however, the stairs really don't fit so we didn't restore them.

Shortly after moving in, we hired A Better Chimney to repoint the bricks and also repair this bad patch. This is how it looked when they finished.

Much better, but we still had a step that dropped about 2 feet to the driveway. It was unsafe. So, last summer, when we wanted to install a charging station for Jeff's plug-in hybrid, we decided to get it fixed. We hired A Better Chimney again, but this time it didn't go so well.

Pedro came out and tore it all apart, but then he disappeared for weeks and weeks. I had to constantly pester him to come out and make progress. It turns out he was diagnosed with cancer and wasn't really able to work on this project, but we had a large hole into our basement all winter.

Finally, sometime this spring—after much prodding— he finished installing all the bricks. 

A couple months ago I got in a fight with Pedro and he hasn't spoken to us since or come out to finish the project, so we have realized he decided to abandon the job.

The black plastic package at the base of the wall is supposedly the cement cap for the top. I guess we'll try to figure out if we can finish this. I don't particularly care for the color of the new bricks as they really don't match, but we could not easily find a better match. I am going to explore brick dye and see if we can improve the color. (I've already bought samples to test.)

Basement Bath Painted

After it dries (and I get some sleep) I'm going to put on another coat. This feels great to get another project done. :) And for those who want to know, the color is Hubbard Squash from Sherwin Williams Arts & Crafts color palette.

I'm going to paint the window frame with the rust color, but I need to clean it up first. It's pretty filthy.

I've got so many projects in flight, it's hard to keep track of all of them. :D
I also did the first coat of stain on the sewing room door. I'll put on the second later today.

I still need to apply a second coat of stain on the fence, but we've had rain threatening this week so I haven't finished that yet.

We're probably going to hire the mason who repaired and repointed our brickwork back in 2010 to remodel the brick wall around our front porch. Jeff wants to remove the unsafe step that is just floating over 2' off the ground and extend the bricks to the house. Once that is finished, we'll install his charging station for his car.

Finding bricks that even sort of closely match is going to be a challenge though. I guess modern bricks are not this size or color. With any luck, we'll find some salvaged brick that will work and we'll be able to proceed on the job.

Gray Bricks

Holy cow, these gray bricks are hard to clean!! Now we know we didn't get our money's worth. Sharon spent several hours cleaning bricks today and cleaned 39!! Seriously, only 39. This is Sharon's tiny "finished pile."We think the bricks are actually made from cement and they've got lots of pores that hold onto the failing mortar very well. Ironically, one of the best ways to clean the mortar off of them is to rub two bricks together, but they're about 5 pounds each and the muscles give out pretty quickly using that method.

And it's also hard to tell when you've removed all the mortar because the brick is basically the same color. So, this is a slow project and many of the bricks will no doubt be installed with some of the mortar residue still on them.

More Bricks to Clean

Obviously we love cleaning bricks, because we went and got more! We bought 300 gray bricks, still with mortar, from someone on craigslist today. Our poor pickup is groaning under the weight; it was maybe a bit much to transport in one load. We probably paid too much given that they still need to be cleaned, but Sharon went and got her heart set on having a pattern like this one for the path and back patio.

We were both pretty tired by the time we got home, so we'll be unloading tomorrow!

Outdoor Projects

Jeff worked hard today finishing up digging the last two rain gardens on the side of the house. He's almost there.Unfortunately, this huge rosemary plant was a bit of a fatality. Though, we are planning to root quite a few cuttings to plant elsewhere in the yard.While he worked on that project, Sharon slowly chipped away at the brick pile. She removes the mortar much more slowly than Jeff can, but she did manage to clean off almost 100 bricks. Our "cleaned" brick pile continues to grow.While our "dirty" brick pile is slowly shrinking. We're getting there.

Cleaning Bricks

Continuing his amazing productivity trend, Jeff (with some schlepping help from Sharon) spent about 3 hours scraping mortar off bricks today. We finally found the right tool and it makes this job much more doable. The package says it's a "Brick Set," which is basically a chisel designed for masonry. We think it's intended to break the bricks, but it works well at knocking mortar off them as well.

The bricks are looking very rustic and will likely look great in our new path up to the front door.
We're still shopping around for inspiration on the path design. These are some ideas Sharon scored off a google search.

This Week's Projects

Sharon tried to reinstall our front door hardware. Though her father and three brothers have all worked as locksmiths at one time or another in their lives—there clearly is no lock gene which she shares with the rest of her family. After about 30 minutes of fiddling with it she finally gave up. Jeff had better luck, or umm...skill!! It's just a little change—but it's so nice to be able to go back and forth through the front door again.We are hoping at some point to refinish that lock plate or find a suitable replacement that will dress up the front door. But we've spent too much this year; it will wait.

The mason we hired last summer to repoint the brickwork finally came out and finished the job! Apparently they had never gotten around to sealing the brick and installing the damper and once the brick was wrapped for the remodel they couldn't get to it earlier this year. So now they are finally done. At the time we were happy with their work, but were very disappointed when we learned they had not finished the job last summer. Though, at least they were honest enough to tell us they had to come back and finish.

Sharon has continued to spend large amounts of time doing embroidery. She either sped up or spent a bit more time yesterday because she managed to "get ahead" of the initial pace.Though we really should be working on finishing the paint stripping in the master bedroom, we don't like working in the heat. Admittedly the upstairs is cooler than last year, but we don't like working when it's over 80°F up there. So the project is simply going to wait until the weather cools down a bit. We could, of course, turn up the cooling, but we really need to work with the windows open and we don't want to pay for all the cold air departing through the windows. Now that we have the main floor back, sleeping in the basement isn't a big deal.

This afternoon we're meeting with Craftsman Design & Renovation to try and close out the job. We have been working on a "punch list" which lists all the problems/unfinished items. So we'll probably have a couple more days of workers while they work through that list and then we'll be done! (With this job anyway.)

Chimney GONE!

Today they pulled the chimney. We now have a hole that runs all the way from the basement through the roof of the house.

Our furnace vented out of this old chimney, so we are now without heat. We hope it doesn't get too cold again.

We kept a lot of the bricks that we're too damaged from the removal to use for paths in the yard. We have quite a large pile on our driveway to deal with later.
















The hole in the backyard is huge now. They'll be cutting in the door on Monday and no doubt starting to build stairs soon.

Masonry Done!

The masons have finally finished. It looks nice, but it took them quite a while to get finished.

Now we just have to deal with the leaking driveway roof before the rains start.










Jeff is driving back from California today. Poor guy, another too long day with no help from another driver.

I'm trying to be productive by doing a bunch of neglected errands today.

Bad Masonry Fix Patched

The mason has finally gotten around to patching the ugly bad repair in the porch brickwork. This is how it looked when we bought the house.

The mason stripped out all the bad brick and then he grabbed some matching bricks from the backside of one of the planters along the front of the porch. We really couldn't find anything remotely matching among new bricks currently available. I'm assuming the mortar will also match once it dries.

We've decided to just use the old bricks from the bad patch to rebuild the planter. All this work, and we didn't actually end up using any new bricks. We reused everything.

Jeff, the Apprentice Mason

Luckily, our current brick mason is happy to let Jeff help in repointing our bricks. Most contractors aren't so tolerant. =)

Jeff seems to really be enjoying himself and learning a lot. Thanks to Pedro at A Better Chimney for letting him help like this.

More Chimney Photos

...thanks to Jeff. I ain't getting up on the roof—No way.

The mason actually worked on it more this afternoon, but Jeff never made his way back up there to take a new picture. It may actually be done by now!

Tomorrow they're going to fill mortar in the ground-level brickwork.


We finally have a POD-free driveway!! If you look close at this picture, Jeff is up on the roof (on the right side).