Cuz it's a BRICK. HOOOOUSSSE.

okay...i've been slacking.  no excuses.

but I have more pics!

these old Victorian "brownstones" all have great brick fronts.  there are as many styles of color and design as there are houses.  the biggest challenge in renovating an old brick front is that the people the knew how to make this beautiful architecture are all loooong gone.  and they took their old-world craftsmanship secrets to the grave with them.

so, when restoring a brick front, you have a limited set of options.  when the work beings,  you hope that the existing front is in good shape structurally---ours gets an "A" [there are alot that are beginning to fall down]....that there are no missing bricks [we have 99% of the bricks intact] and that nobody painted it over.  [our front is in the same basic shape it was in around 1920]

most recent DC renovations go with the "paint over" method since its fast, cheap, and easy.  I'm not knocking them...some of the paint-overs have cool colors and keep true to the architectural style [some are, ahem, not so well done]

the bricks: they last forever.  the mortar doesn't. after about 100 years, it turns into sand.  and eventually the bricks will start to collapse.  unless you repoint the brick.

SOOOOOO [at the urging of my contractor] we chose to re-point the brick.  and i dont regret it for a second.  it looks GREAT.  really gives the house a "facelift" AND gives at least another 50+ years of life to the original brick structure.

repointing involves a few steps:

1 - fill in new mortar where the old mortar has been washed away
2 - adjust any bricks that have shifted out of place over the years
3 - power wash old sediment off the brick face [i.e. old paint]
4 - replace any missing brick

take a look at these pics and you can see the difference in progress.