[Daughter
Hallie and her husband Nick are renovating a little brick Tudor in Seattle’s
Ballard neighborhood. The following was sent by Hallie on May 9.]
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HIDDEN TREASURE STORY:As you know, my goal is to harvest a 5 gallon bucket of weeds every day that it's nice out. With this lofty goal, you can figure that my weeding tool will eventually poke every square inch of the yard. Well, today when I worked my way to the edge of the yard I hit rock. But this time the rock seemed quite large, so I found the edge of it and pried up a perfect brick. Then another, and then another. I discovered 2 - 4 bricks every 3 feet leading up to the house--a little walkway! Then, I discovered that around the tree by the house there had been an entire patio made of brick. WAHOO!
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Why do I
care? BECAUSE at some point in time the back bedroom was modified to have a
sliding glass door rather than a wall with a window. I hate the sliding glass
door and one of our aspirations is to fix it back to its original state, which
will make the room more functional. Since the house is 85 years old, it's quite
difficult to find these types of brick (in dimension and in style) and it was
not very likely that we'd be able to get a good match. It's like I won the
lottery! I have more unearthing to do this weekend, but it appears that we'll
be making a really big dent in the acquisition of needed brick.
OTHER "LITTLE TUDOR" BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES:
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Functional (and safe) outdoor outlet
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Freshly painted kitchen drawers with new pulls
[Mike and I are excitedly looking forward to visiting Nick and Hallie this
weekend. The dogs watched rather nervously while we packed the car this afternoon. They don't know it yet, but they're gonna have a wonderful weekend!]
We came up with 132 bricks. A good start, but still not enough. A real pickle. Where will we find these?
ReplyDeleteGreat find! Having a brick house ourselves, we know the problem though. Wonder what they did with the ones where the slider is? Probably demolished and tossed (Perish the thought!)
ReplyDeleteCraigslist? (LOL) Mama's comin' to help.
ReplyDeleteYou might have to do some sort of blend of old and new. Also, I'll take measurements and see if the old brick at the farm corresponds.
But my guess is that you'll mix your mediums and come up with something you like.
Hi Chris! You must be taking a break.
ReplyDeleteYeah -- where do old bricks go when they die? Is there a yard for old brick?
Our mason tells us that there are brick salvage yards and he says that bricks like this go for $2.50 each. Sheesh! He said he'd keep an eye out for us, too, in case he does a chimney take down with a match.
ReplyDelete$2.50 a brick? Hey, maybe we'll unbrick our house and make our fortune!!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Kathy, I took a break (and am again). I'm working on both scrapbooking and sewing today, along with watching a little Scarecrow and Mrs. King while I sew. I seem to need to swap projects every so often when I hit a ponderable point and need to step away. Who knew I could multitask? Oh wait--I'm not doing both at the same time, so I guess it's not multitasking. Or is it? Hmmm...
Mom and Dad look forward to seeing the bricks and what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteOh, Chris, you are definitely multi-tasking. At least, you're multi-thinking. Sometimes I come to the end of my rope right in the middle of something, and when I return to it, I think, "Just what was the problem here anyway?"
I totally forgot to say how beautiful the cabinet drawers are now!! What a transformation.
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