Bricks and Mortar

Where to begin? We have had a full week at Casablanca! Dirt is flying, bricks are crumbling and another popcorn ceiling bites the dust! Sounds like what I would call A Big Fat Mess, and it is. But it’s also amazing progress. Let’s see if I can even begin to recap…

First, the chimney received it’s final blow. I don’t know how this thing has survived the strong winds of hurricane season. The mortar in these last bricks was practically dust. Didn’t take a whole lot to get them knocked down.

Yep, that’s what’s left of a nest… no telling.

The contractors cannot believe we want to keep these bricks! Oh, but we do. And they will soon be footpaths around the property. It’ll be great!Another big hole in the house! But we’re on the way to replacing it with something awesome!

I love to see what’s inside the walls. This room was the original house – just these 4 walls. It’s fascinating to wonder what life was like here in 1853!

Next on our list was to pick out the brick that would be used to replace this chimney and fireplace. Sounds simple enough, right? HAHAHAHAHAHA! We went to ACME Brick and worked with Carol (shout out to Carol!!). Now, I know there are a lot of ways to go with brick, but until you are charged with picking out THE ONE you just have no idea – there are approximately one million variations of brick.

We both want something that does not scream NEW CONSTRUCTION, and Eric zeroed in on a brick sample that truly looked “vintage.” In fact, it looked so vintage that I was skeptical it could hold up a chimney. Turns out, he picked the most expensive brick in the store – individually hand-crafted, or some such! As his dad used to say, “Son, you’ve got champagne taste on a Kool-Aid budget!”

Through divine intervention we landed on the right one. I didn’t even realize how right it was until Eric got this picture of the sample next to the chimney. We’re on the right track with the brick – hallelujah!

We got down in the deep weeds on the kitchen this weekend. We had our #1 help, Mavinee, on board. Bless her heart. She is just simply the best! See…

Eric worked on his 17th ceiling by scraping popcorn off in the kitchen; we scrubbed, vacuumed, primed, sanded – all the same stuff. I’ve rarely left the house as nasty as I did on Saturday afternoon – yuck!

All is well here at Casablanca! Thank you for your interest and your prayers. We hope to have even more news to share soon!