Plaster Man

Brian has now put a couple coats of plaster over the mortar. He'll probably have to do another coat or two on some spots, but it is looking good. One of these pictures probably would have sufficed, but he hates me putting pictures of him on this blog (and rarely lets me take any of him) so when I have a few, I have no choice but to post them all. ;)

Filling In The Holes

Brian decided to test his masonry skills today and slap some mortar on the exposed brick where the walls used to be. A quick trip to our friendly neighborhood Ace and $10 later, he was on his way.

Here's what it looked like before he started.







After he put the mortar on these two spots, he got all gung ho and decided to move the refrigerator and pull the last piece of the wall away that was there so he could mortar that too. Great job, honey. Now lets see what you can do with plaster.

And no, Brian, this does not mean you can now become a Mason.

The Results

Many apologies to Uncle Brad for the delays in this post. Here are the results of the bricked up window. We still have a little scrubbing to do, but all-in-all we hare happy with the results. It's pretty difficult to get a perfect match on these old houses. I am really glad we kept the original brick.

A Long Time Coming

After a year and a half of Brian nagging and nagging and nagging me to make some curtains for the office, I finally did. I opted for this striped pattern. It has black, greens and creams in it. I wanted something a little more masculine for this room.


Okay, okay, Brian didn't nag me at all. Just love to give him crap. What do you think?

Better Than TV

Today Skeeto spent half an hour standing at the window watching the workers outside. It must have been pretty interesting.



















First they took out the bricks that make up the windowsill. Then they took out all the half bricks on the sides. They had to mix the mortar with a special blend of colors to make sure it matched. They used measuring cups and everything.










Then they started using the old bricks we had from the demo on the renovation to brick up the window.

We don't have any pics of the window totally bricked up since they put this tarp with heated coils up to make sure the mortar would cure correctly. We'll be able to take the tarp down Saturday. On Monday, they'll come back to clean it up and make sure the patina and mortar look right.

When God Bricks Up A Window...

In order to build our nice big pantry -- well, big by Avenues standards -- we had planned on bricking up one of our old bedroom windows sometime in the next 4-6 weeks. The masonry company we hired was fully booked for at least a month so we gave them the go ahead and figured we'd do this sometime late November, early December. Yesterday they called and said they'd be out today after lunch. :)

They showed up early this morning to get a sample of the mortar that they will have to match as well as the brick that we have left over from the demolition of the upper part of our house. So far, so good. They seem thorough.

So...today while I was at work, Brian started by pulling off the window trim.






After that, he pulled the window and window frame out. Luckily, today's weather was quite pleasant and nobody froze to death.

After this, Brian went and picked up Izzypop just before the masons arrived.








This photo is only significant because if you look closely, you will see not only the apprentice to the head mason, but the much shorter, and younger apprentice to the apprentice. :) Cutie.










The first thing they did was put a layer of cinder block in. This will be the base for the outer brick that matches the house.


Then they put a thin layer of mortar on the inside portion of the cinder block. We will come back later and plaster over this to make the wall smooth again.


Tomorrow they will come back to put the exterior brick up. This will be the moment of truth. Can they make it look right?