Here is a quick shot of the work in progress:
This post is really about another project, however, one that sort of took me by surprise. See, I went by Jack's place this weekend as I knew he was working with Matt, Sylvia, and Dave to install windows. After I "helped" with that project (mostly by staying out of the way), we went for beers and Matt asked me why I had never contacted their mason regarding repointing the brick fireplaces/chimneys in my house. I told him I had never gotten the number, and minutes later I was on the phone with Esteban, a talented Honduran mason looking for work. We agreed to meet later in the day so he could give me a price.
He showed up, evaluated the chimneys, and promptly quoted me a price so good I really didn't even want to say "let me think about it." Instead, the words that came out of my mouth next were "How long will it take you and when can you start?" He smiled at me and asked if I would meet him at the house the following morning. So, just like that, the brickwork is going to get some desperately needed attention.
The following morning, Esteban showed up with his "cousin" Dino. These guys got right to work scraping the old mortar out from between the bricks. I wish I had known what a ridiculous amount of dust and mess this was going to make. Here is a picture of one of the mantles covered with some of the dust:
Now, imagine that multiplied by fifty, with a good portion of it dropped from a height approaching 12 feet, creating billowing clouds of mortar dust, and you get the idea. This shot shows how dusty it was getting:
After the scraping, it was time to re-mortar the joints! Here is Esteban applying the mortar:
A big item I was really concerned about was the fireplace in the kitchen. The opening in the fireplace had been covered by a screen in what appeared to be an effort to prevent anything from coming down the chimney? The opening had also been filled with a bunch of extra bricks, and the whole affair was just a mess. In the following picture you can also see the area down the right-hand side was in need of repair and that there are holes all in the mortar:
Here is a picture of the same fireplace after the mortar was cleaned:
And, finished and almost dry:
Here is a picture of the re-mortared front of one of the fireplaces (above the mantle):
And a couple more of the finished fireplaces:
Did I mention that this great price included re-pointing the brick in the attic and on the roof? These guys asked me to meet them at 6:30 AM one day, and 5:30 AM another to ensure that they could get some good work in before the attic became too "caliente" to continue working. Don't panic, anyone (Mom): Esteban has experience working on this type of roof.
An interesting story... as the guys were cleaning up, I noticed a rather large water puddle under the plastic in the kitchen. Given that I have put a lot of effort into those floors, of course I was quite concerned. I immediately pulled up the plastic and completely wiped down the affected area, and to my relief there appeared to be no lasting damage. At the time, I assumed something had spilled, but when I returned to the area ten minutes later, I noticed the water pooling again. Upon further investigation, I determined that the water was coming from the dishwasher, an appliance that hasn't even been turned on in over a year. I opened it to find it filled with water about 2 inches deep, and this water didn't seem to be draining. I removed the kick plate and saw a hose, very old, that was leaking at the place it joined the dishwasher. After fiddling with it a little more, I managed to accidentally disconnect the hose (which I thought was the drain hose but turned out to be a pressurized supply line!) and cause a major leak / spray from under the dishwasher! PANIC! I quickly ran outside to turn off the water, and pulled out the dishwasher to find a very disgusting under-counter space, now all soggy with water/dust/grease and small items lost from lives past... Thank goodness for rubber gloves and a good wet/dry shop vac. i cleaned up all the water, vacuumed out this space, turned off the water supply to the dishwasher and restored water service to the house. At that point, Esteban had finished. I inspected the work and called it a day.
Oh... and if anyone is getting rid of a nice, stainless steel dishwasher, or wants to come pick up the dishwasher of terror (for free), let me know!
