Tuckpointers are Here!

Our biggest project is now underway. The tuckpointers showed up last week and have already finished grinding out all the bad spots and are in the process of filling the joints with new mortar. The chimney was practically knocked down and reassembled it was in such bad shape. There was no mortar left so all they had to do was lift the bricks off. We used the original blueprints to try and rebuild the chimney to look similar to the original. The large limestone layers were missing so we put two back in.
These tuckpointers hail from Bosnia and are working very long days. I wish I could spend more time watching them in their trade, cutting the limestone, matching the original mortar, laying brick. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this whole renovation is learning about different trades and meeting different people. This reminds me of a quote by a French poet that I first heard from a Colonel I highly respected... "By the work one knows the workman."