The Cleanest on the Block

It's easy to compare the before and after looking at our house compared to our neighbors

After a failed roof and downspout caused massive erosion to one section of our brick wall, Gregg took on the outside masonry project. I thought this would be simple but with our house, I should have known that is never the case! But after bidding out to four contractors, having one pull out at the last minute, and the inevitable obstacles, I can now say we have the cleanest house on the block.
The Bidding Process
Let's just say that our roles in this house renovation are now clearly defined. But this wasn't always the case... In our naive beginning days, Gregg and I were full of energy and decided to divide and tackle our multitude of projects. Infrastructure was first and he took figuring out the roofing and plumbing contractors while I volunteered for finding a termite guy and bidding out the masons (how hard can brick be?). Well let's just say the termite process was easy as pie [insert plug for Franky from Absolute Termite Control], the masons were not as simple. I met with four different companies and their bids and scope of worked could not have been more different. While one guy would take his time, looked all around the property, talk mortar matching another dismissively told me it was a $2,000 job and I wouldn't understand the details.

A Project [almost] Forgotten

Clean house...but a not so clean better half :)

With the rush to completely gut and create a new kitchen while also plumb necessary bathrooms, the masonry work soon moved to a lower priority. It wasn't until two months ago when Gregg took on the endeavor with renewed energy. He was determined to make the exterior of our house look classy if we were putting in so much time/money/energy on the inside. Understanding now that I am not the best with getting consistent (what Gregg calls apple-to-apple) bids, he took on the bidding process from the start. After reviewing all the proposals, Gregg selected a mason referred to us by Danny. He called him, excited to get the project started and requested a few clarifications, just detailing out areas discussed, in the contract. The night before he was due to start, he left a moody voice mail stating he was rescinding his proposal and could not work on our house.

The Work Begins
After the drama, Gregg selected Marty of Weber Brickpointing, the infamous mason who told me condescendingly when I asked him the details of his bid, that I 'wouldn't understand.' But despite my reservations, Marty's team of brick washers and masons did an AMAZING job and worked every weekend to get it done on time. They did such an amazing job we insisted the television show bring them in to fix our exposed brick wall in the attic.

Our Clean, Re-pointed, Structurally Sound Exterior
Now for the photos!

Using the boom truck or lift, they were able to save time/$ vs. using scaffolding

They started cleaning our retaining wall and realized... it's granite!