Re-pointing
The project is now moving so quickly, I can’t keep up. The septic guys are building the sand mounds, digging the trenches, and burying the tanks; the air conditioning guy is running ductwork and installing cooling lines; one carpenter is fixing the roof on the summer kitchen, while the other one is prepping the radiators; the electricians are hooking up the junction box; the mason is repointing the stone walls; Brian is finishing the basement in the workshop; and Dawn is trying to stay on top of it all!
The only person who isn’t there is the heating guy, who is probably the most crucial person right now. We have been assured he will be there next week and will have enough time to run all the plumbing to the radiators by the end of October. We’ll see.
Henry Hollenbeck, along with Brian and Rodney, are “repointing” the mansion. This means blowing out all the old loose mortar (the stuff that holds the stones together) and applying new mortar. The trick is to match the mortar to the stone — if the mortar is too hard (like portland cement), then during a freeze-thaw cycle the mortar destroys the surrounding stone!
Needless to say, the last person who patched the walls used portland cement. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like too much damage was done, and Henry is going to pull all that out. He is also trying to match the color of the new mortar to the old, and also “tool” (shape) it like the original mortar, so when he’s done patching we won’t be able to tell old from new. (That’s the plan, at least.)