Home Improvements

This topic will chronicle the changes that Dot and I will be making on the house that we live in. Last year, Dot bought a fixer upper town house. Over the course of the year we have made some minor improvements. Mainly, some redecorating and replacing the carpet on the second floor.
This year however, she has set her mind on making some major upgrades one of which was replacing the tiles in both the kitchen and dining room. That upgrade came out unscathed. It was done by some contractors that Dot's aunt knows very well.
The next upgrade we wanted to do was to remove the paint from the outside brickface. The previous owner had decided upon paining the brinkface instead of hiring someone to powerwash the brickface and pointing around the bricks. I must say that was a cheap renovation but the end result was devastating to say the least. When Dot bought the property, the paint was peeling off the bricks. Not that the paint was made of lead. On the contrary it was peeling because the brick could not "breathe".
Just a little note to all you home owners out there. If you really want to improve on your brickfaced home, dont paint over the bricks. Before even considering that get a quote on either pointing the brickface or cover it entirely with aluminum siding. Never paint over brick! The contractors we hired, underwent the daunting task of putting strong paint remover over the painted bricks to remove the paint not once but 3 times!
Today, they completed the task of paint removal and I must say, they did a swell job! Not only was the paint off the bricks but it looks spanking brand new. The brickface was calling out that it could breathe again as it did about a decade ago. Now, the pointing begins. The contractors will be back in two weeks. That leaves me not enough time to prepare for the poining. I will have to remove the semi dead plants around the bricked areas. And to call the phone company to rewire the phone lines away from the bricks to be pointed. Aurghh!