Re-pointing The Old Brick Chimney

Ken's taken a whole week off work this week. We have a big job ahead of us, re-pointing the old chimney. We noticed that it had deteriorated quite a lot since we moved in here 5 years ago. Part of the problem is because at some point in time it was patched up using modern Portland cement. It isn't good for old masonary like this soft brick. The original mortar is made from lime. We looked all over locally for the right type of lime but couldn't find any.

As luck would have it, Ken had to go up to Pennsylvania last week for a few days. I happened to be scouring the web for places that sold lime and came across http://www.palimeworks.com/lwus/ They sell ready mixed lime mortars for the restoration of old masonary. It was only a few miles from where Ken was working. He was able to go over and meet Andy,the owner, and get everything we needed to fix the chimney ( including instructions on how to go about it and do it right) Saved us hundreds of dollars just in shipping costs.Thank you Andy!

 One of Ken's co-workers offered to lend us some scaffolding and Ken and Josh went over there today to pick it up. Hope the weather cooperates. We've had a wet weekend but it's supposed to clear up and be nice all week.

My sunflowers finally opened! I'll take some pictures tomorrow. - Oh, it IS tomorrow! Better get to bed.