I'm pretty sure I just heard something groaning in my kitchen cupboard. You would think I'd be startled wouldn't you?
I was not.
Which in itself is kind of disturbing.
An unusually high tolerance to mystery noises is just one of the skill sets that develops from living in an old house. How old? Mmm. Probably about 170 years old. That's North American old, not European old. To someone in Europe where houses can be 500 years old, a 170 year old house is akin to living in a sparkly new condo.
It's gone through a few changes over the years including having all of its bricks being painted white probably some time around the 40's or 50's. Wild guess there.
Whenever I can't put a time frame on something be it clothing, furniture or events, I always go with the 40's or 50's. It's right about 60% of the time. I find I can apply the same method and odds of being correct to Trivial Pursuit by using the answer "Lucile Ball" whenever I'm stumped.
Some time in the 1980's whoever owned my house had the white paint sandblasted off to reveal the original red brick underneath. I am thankful every, single day that someone else had that job to do and not me.
Having a painted brick house reverted to its original brick is a P A I N I N T H E A S S. Both for the owner of the house and the neighbours. Sandblasting is messy, messy and stripping an entire house can be toxic, toxic.
So I was intrigued a few years ago when I saw a beautiful, old, brick building in my town that had been painted white for as long as I could remember, suddenly surrounded by scaffolding. I figured something was going on. I'm pretty perceptive like that.
Through the power of Google Maps (and some astute readers) I was able to find a picture of the building before the scaffolding went up.
Within a week or two, the stately white building looked like this ...
It wasn't sandblasted. It wasn't stripped. It was painted.
Every single brick and mortar line was hand painted to look like the original brick.
Now, I thought that was fascinating enough. But last month I ended up talking to the owner of the building.
As it turns out, this isn't your average every day paint job. The bricks are painted with a special clay that penetrates the substrate. Over time the clay, which is more brittle than paint, will peel and take the original white paint with it, revealing the original, unharmed brick underneath.
Because the painted brick is very close looking to the natural brick, you don't even notice the peeling. The process isn't an overnight thing. It can take anywhere from 10 - 40 years for the process to occur.
The fact that it takes so long really doesn't matter though because for those 10 - 40 years (and even throughout the peeling process), the building always looks great.
I have NO idea what this process costs and I definitely wasn't paid to write about this. I just thought it was such a unique and interesting process. This is the company that performed the work by the way. They do all kinds of different (environmentally friendly) stone and masonry work.
I have no idea if they have any process to deal with groaning cupboards. Which I suspect has been a problem in my house since the 40's or 50's, leading me to believe I might just have Lucille Ball trapped in there.
Chrissy
"Roberto Clemente" is my go-to when I get the sports category in Trivial Pursuit.
Karol
I always use "Bobby Orr" in the ice hockey questions. It's the only name in hockey I know, and it usually works.
Diana
Every question with "Where..." are answered with TO THE MOON or THE RED PLACE IN MOSKAU;o)
Diana
Hi Karen,
you are right. In Europe the houses are much older. We found the first registered owner in the year 1760.
And the street was named like our small village, because there where only 10 adresses. And it`s directly next to a monastery!
Sometimes I`m dreaming of a girl with long red braided hair and a long dress in our house.
Spooky!!
Two of our walls are made of bricks too, but we needed isolationlayer and so we had to hide the very nice bricks from the outside.
Maybe I will chop the plasterwork from the inside, so I have the bricks in my livingroom. Not toxic, you said!?
Diana
Karol
Absolutely incredible. Who would have ever thought that would be a viable solution?! Good job, Karen, I learned something very cool today.
Patti
Wow. Amazing. I absolutely LOVE that, and totally want to start painting brick houses now. SO COOL! Thanks sooo much for sharing!
Marion
that's really awesome, and it doesn't even look painted from a distance! although personally I love brick painted white, especially after it has started to peel and show some of it's original color underneath. The town I live in in Alabama has a ton of houses like that in the historic district. I like to ride my bike around and dream of owning one...
also, that cat doesn't seem to thrilled to be in the photo. did you get written consent to post it on the interwebs?
Lynne
How'd you get that kitty cat to walk across the front door step...on cue?
p.s VERY COOL IDEA. Why do I learn these things AFTER I do all the hard work first? My first name should be : DUH.
Lynne *_*.
Sarah In Illinois
As a lover of old houses and restoration, I can not believe I had never heard of that before. That is frickin' brilliant! I wish I had invented that, I'd be writing this from the deck of my yacht!
Debbie
Wow, that is so cool!!! Thank you once again for bringing way cool information into my living room! I find myself telling different people about things I've learned from your blog! And last night enjoyed your great hamburger recipe. So thank you, thank you, thank you!!
marilyn
geez karen i have live in this town longer than you and for the life of me cannot figure out where this is!it looks amazing..what people wont think of eh?
Debbie
So much better like this! What a gorgeous house.
Reg
What a fascinating process. I wonder who thinks of these things. A painted brick facial.
Susan
Ha! I wondered how they did that! Inquiring minds want to know! I knew they hadn't blasted it but I thought they had put some kind of plastic stuff like Mac tac overtop! I wonder if they have any kind of paint I can put on my wrinkles to make them disappear....oh yea....in 30- 40 years I'll be dead so it won't matter!! LOL! Thanks Karen for being nosy and asking! By the way how did you get that cat to walk past just as you were taking a picture? I'm sure it wasn't a prop! :-)
mimiindublin
2052, ha ha!
Brilliant post Karen, I've never understood how people could paint beautiful red brick, but fashion has a lt to answer for! Thankfully nobody bthered to paint the red brick on my house, but up the road there are some horrible 50's (maybe 60's?) "red" brick houses that could do with this treatment. Would the neighbours be offended if i showed them this post?
Karen
Mimi - You could just learn the technique yourself and quietly do the job in the middle of the night. They'll probably never notice. ~ karen
Lori
Thanks for sharing that Tibet of news! I love the look!
Frances Montgomery
These surely look pretty impressive work and there is no doubt about that. Don’t have much word to say. Two thumbs up!!!
Kat
As far as bloggers go you are the best!!! I only follow one blogger. This is one of the best articles I have read in awhile. I love brick, I love painted brick, heck any brick will get me going. I am always rambling on to my sons about the old brick homes back in Ontario. Thanks loved reading this one!
karenagain
Well now, that is just the greatest thing ever. I can picture it before as white. Can you please post some progress pics every five years and an after pic in 2052?
Karen
Certainly. No problem. ~ karen
karenagain
Thank you very much my dear. I am looking forward to it. Please when you hit about 85 or 90 years old rename your blog to "The Fart of Doing Fluff". Then we shall just talk about the olden days like when Laura's Grandparents brought them candy for Christmas. Remember how exciting that was? Today we bought my step daughter an I-Pad for her birhtday. She was half-assed happy. Whatever. Should have given her a candy stick and shoved it up her ...
Mel B
This is so cool. Made my morning. Thanks!
Mel
carey
when they were doling out brains, texture ltd. got them all. that is just freaking brilliant! but, 40 years on the process?! that's a heckuva long time to get results. i'll come visit when i'm 90 to make sure it works!
Tracy
You wouldn't have a before picture would you?
Karen
I do not. Just picture it painted white. ~ karen!
Ann
Google Streetview! - but it looks more grey than white...
Laura Bee
Google maps - it's still white - I found it in about 5 minutes with my tracking skills. Could you maybe screen-shot it? (I don't know how to do that lol)
Karen
Thanks Laura. I've updated the post. ~ karen
Karen
Hi Tracy - I've put up a before picture! ~ karen
Pati Gulat
Wow,that's pretty cool !