Masonry Projects Complete!

Our mason did a terrific job fixing up the various problems at 83 Durant.

The main job was fixing the front wall in the basement, which has been the source of leakage over and over again. That area of the basement also had a bunch of weird built-in workbench type things. Why do I describe them as weird? Well, one of them was actually a door -- a cheap, hollow door -- made into a workbench top. It was kinda crazy, and we never used that area for anything, let alone as a workshop. So Jake's first job, before the mason could come to do his job, was to rip out all the junk. Here it is, most of the way broken down:


And now, here it is, all fixed up and water-tight!


We're now thinking that we should also have the side wall (where the window is) done later.

While we had him here, we also had him take care of a few masonry projects and repairs on the outside of the house.

This is a small area of the wall on the side of the house, towards the back. As you can see in the "before" picture, it looks like all the mortar has been chipped away.


The mason not only re-pointed, but decided that it would all be much stronger if he just coated the whole thing. So here it is, all nice and smooth and ready to paint (if we want to).





Here are the steps that lead out to the backyard from the basement:
They were once all cracked, and several bricks were missing. Now they're all better. (Sorry, I couldn't find a before picture.)

He also fixed up this little area of brick pointing:

So things are now nice and tight and hopefully water-proof and critter-proof! Hooray!

...and we're back

We're back from a restful and fun week in Vermont, and were pleased to find things in quite reasonable condition upon our return. The garden is indeed a bit overgrown with weeds:



Thanks to alert readers (check out the comments) we figured out that one of our weeds was actually only an overgrown radish -- a joke radish in bloom. HA! They have even bloomed tiny white flowers (see below). But we pulled one up, and indeed, it was/is a radish. Also, in the picture below, you will see that our lettuce has bolted. Suggestions, dear readers? Can we trim it back and hope to get decent lettuce out of it, or is this the kind of thing we should just pull up and be done with?



The tomatoes are not looking very tall or productive, with the exception of the one in the far left corner (we thought it was an "early girl" but now maybe something else).

It's clear from the state of the garden that we got some rain while we were away, which is wonderful. What is less than wonderful is the water in the basement, which, as usual, made its entrance via the window well off the driveway, as said driveway's drain was filled with gunk. Sigh. Piles of towels to dry again. We really need to get to that little masonry job very soon.

Other than that all is well at 83 Durant. We need to do some weeding and mowing of grass, but we're very happy to be home.