The latest home improvement project: Repairing the brick steps out in front of the house. Over the years, a few bricks have come loose, apparently due to some poor mortar joints letting water in between the bricks:

Freeze-thaw cycles cause the joints to expand, eventually popping bricks loose.

What we started with:

So far most of the work is just in digging and chipping out the old mortar:

Besides preparing the surface to re-attach the bricks, we also have to clean the old mortar off of the old bricks, so we can re-use as many as possible. We already know that we need to replace a couple that split, but to keep the “looks” it’s best to use the old ones whenever possible – it’s hard to match color and weathering.

With the heat this weekend, we’re working in pretty small intervals. We did two hours then retreaded to the coolness of the basement. More to come…