Hi everyone! Even with the heat, we have to keep taking advantage of the warmer weather to work on the exterior. As we learned this last year (and our first season here in West Virginia), once winter comes, you have to simply move inside and use your energy where you can work on and complete a project. Some projects outside require a few days, simply because of what they are.

One for example is the continuing repair of the foundation. These shots are along the side and back of the house. Again, all things that people may not see driving by (and we’re sure they are wondering) but it’s all good because we’re busy in the back!

Fortunately this section of the crumbling foundation is the LAST section in this condition. And when I say crumbling foundation, the integrity of the foundation is actually still intact, the bricks used at the time were several bricks thick and this was simply the outer most row of bricks. With that said, it’s still a chink in the armor and will continue to deteriorate and affect the home if we don’t fix it.

These bricks were loose and you could completely pull them out, so I went back to work here as I did last summer; pulling out all and any loose bricks, cleaning up the broken pieces and crumbling mortar, remaking a new lime mortar mix and building it back. This was on the far corner you see below and the bricks all along the side wall going all the way to the back were also in this condition.

You can scroll through the pics below and see how it looked. What’s also nice is this patch of land was COVERED with poison ivy when we moved here last summer. The poison ivy is all gone, grass has now been planted and starting to spring up and now the foundation is secure! As soon as we have a dry day (it’s been raining here for the last several days), I’ll be outside painting these bricks the same light gray as the front foundation. We can’t wait to see it looking cohesive with the front!