One of the most satisfying projects we’ve tackled so far is repairing the brick floor in the entry and dining room. You might remember, we found the brick floor when we removed a layer of asphalt, but along one side, and at the entry, the bricks were missing (we don’t know why they were removed).
We have a great source for reclaimed bricks, so we planned to hire a mason to fill in the missing brick, but Christophe (he’s done most of our other masonry work) was booked, and apparently, so is everyone else. So we decided to try doing the work ourselves.
Here’s a report of how it’s going to so far:
We started by clearing out the space, buying 100 bricks, and then cleaning the bricks. Then we mixed sand and chaux (lime) and started putting in the bricks. Gijsbert coached us and helped when we got stuck — this was our first time trying a masonry project and we had lots of questions.
The next day, we returned and Grant taught us how to fill in the joints. We completed the bathroom area, and experimented with cleaning the tar/asphalt residue off the older bricks (no success with that yet). We are so pleased with how the repairs turned out!
We were feeling confident about our work on the powder room floor, so we decided to attempt the brickwork in the entry, which is a bigger space. We cleared the dirt and rubble from half the entry space, then we went back to the brickyard and picked up 200 bricks, and we started putting the bricks in.
We’re not done yet. But we made more progress yesterday, and we hope to finish up today. In addition to finishing the entry, there’s still one long, narrow section in the dining room that we need to fill in. We’d like to do the work over the weekend so the kids can be involved. I think they would enjoy it — it’s satisfying work and you can see the progress happen right before your eyes.
It feels so good to try our hand at a new skill, and it makes me want to try some masonry skills in other spots too — like putting a path in the Secret Garden. Your turn: Have you had a chance to learn a new skill lately? I’d love to hear.
P.S. — More Tall House updates.
