Day 83

Brick masonry. The bricks arrived mid-week last week, and the brick masons got to work this past Saturday. They can make pretty quick work of a brick wall, once they are setup.

It is fascinating to watch them work. When we got back from our trip to Biloxi last Saturday, we went to the site to see what was happening. They already had about 4′ done about halfway around the house. They put up these boards on each corner, and then mark whatever the height of a row of bricks is on each of the boards. Then, they have a string with some kind of wooden place holder on the end. They move it to a spot on their marked board, and go to town, laying bricks. When they are done with the whole row, they move it up to the next line, and continue.

They had about 5 guys doing this, while the lead guy inspected the work, and made sure the problem areas were being taken care. Then, another guy went behind with some loose mortar to fill in the holes. You see, we asked for the brick that was going to be painted to have “neat” mortar, rather than “messy” mortar. Some people are using the messy look, and while I like it on other people’s houses that I’ve seen, I don’t want it on ours. Neither of us do.

We went and got some Gatorade for them all, just as a nice gesture. It never hurts to butter up the ones working on your house. ;)

We came across some very interesting brick spiral towers. We had no idea what these were or why they were stacked up like this. Then, we saw that it is how they used the bricks for towers to stack their boards of mortar on. It was neat.

I was a little bit worried about where they put the bags of mortar and the load of sand. It is very near the white oak tree that we are keeping. I am afraid that all of that weight so near to the trunk of the tree might kill the tree. I hope it won’t.

Remember a while back when I was upset about not getting the bell shape on the entire roof? And when I decided to just let it go, but kind of negotiated something else into the deal because of that mistake on their part? Well, this “roll-lock” is part of what I negotiated. It is an add-on, and I got my builder to agree to it at no extra charge. Still wondering what it is? If you look at the wall, a little ways from the ground there is a little half brick step-out. That is what I’m talking about. It goes all of the way around the house. I was ambivalent before, but now I really like it. It will look really good once the brick is painted.

Speaking of which, I have half a mind to not paint the brick. I didn’t know what the “paintable” brick would look like, but once they started laying it, I liked it. Rebecca is not amused and does not like the look of it raw.

I can’t wait to see how the rest of the brick comes along.

Until next time…

NOTES ABOUT THE PHOTOS: As you can see from the first few shots of the brick wall, it is kind of messy. They would leave it like that, except we specified for a more neat look. The last couple of photos of the wall zoomed in show how nice and smooth it looks after they are done with their treatment.