3 Crows and 1200 Bricks

  Finished up the brickwork at 3 Crow and everyone seemed satisfied with the results, including ourselves. It was a nice project and I hate to leave. I say it again and again, but it's always a pleasure working with Endeavour, with the Masseys, and Tom Potter and Donny. Looking forward to going back this weekend to address some floor drains.

 

3 Crow

  Started the Endeavour brick job at the new 3 Crow Restaurant, owned by Josh, the current proprieter of 40 Paper in Camden. We are using original bricks from an old wall that was removed during the renovation to build a new brick facade along the northern wall, and maybe a pillar or two. The first step basically consisted of me hand-washing and removing excess mortar from 800 bricks...

  While Damon hung the Hardi-Backer...

  Nice to be working in Rockland again with Tom Potter and Donny. Potter's jobsites really are some of the most well-organized and pleasureable sites I get to be a part of. Good guys, all of them.
  Outside, the icy wind blew 60 and took down large well-established business signage. Somewhere nearby, my electrician was backing into my Tacoma with his work van. Doh!

A Safe Landing

  Tom Potter of the Potter Building Company(207-595-3315), asked us to do a small landing patio at one of his jobsites a few weeks ago.

  Damon and I found some nice granite, Deer Isle, I believe; and we added a few cobbles in the corner to create a raised bed for planting.

  Here are a few shots of our friend and stone sculptor, Dave Curry (who also has scuptures at Harbor Square Gallery in Rockland now) thermalling the final slab of granite before installation. Thermalling uses high temperatures to flake and pop off the outer layer of a stone, giving it a rougher and more natural appearance. It can be a touchy process, however, and if the stone is too thin or weak or has hidden fissures it can spit into pieces and be rendered completely useless. This particular stone was our last piece and there didn't seem to be any left in the midcoast, which meant we would have had to have Josh at Rockport Granite fabricate a piece just for us literally out of a mountainside, so needless to say, we splashed alot of cold water on it while Dave worked, and we held our breath...

Triple Chimney Down

  Hired by the Potter Building Company--owned by my good friend Tom Potter--Damon and I reluctantly removed three chimneys (or 'chimbleys' as they are oft' referred to in these linguistic hinterlands) from a three-story building that is under complete renovation in Rockland.

  I despise heights and postponed the job for many days, in hopes that the chimbleys would collapse of their own free will.  That failed to happen, however, and I was eventually faced with the reality of having to climb up on the roof and knock them down with a hammer, which was made somewhat easier with the use of the jobsite's new pump staging.  The chimneys came apart easily, with most bricks coming loose without even having to strike them.
  The most difficult of the three was the front chimney, which was over seven feet high and almost entirely devoid of mortar in its midsection, so that when I stood on my tip-toes to strike the top, the whole chimney would lean and threaten to dive into the street below.

 

   Here, Damon is wildly abusing a shrinking chimney in the attic.

  We put the bricks in buckets and flung them from the third story window into the enormous bed of the large truck pictured in the first photos.

  House sans chimbleys:

  Also, I need a longer truck.