Project Exposing An Antique Brick Wall -Chapter 1

One of the most physically laborious yet most rewarding projects we have done to date is exposing our antique brick wall. It took several weeks of long days and hard work but the end result is stunning. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat and plan on doing it in our building next door in spite of the intense argument that my wrists are already displaying. What is that saying? “Beauty is Pain?”

A Bit Of Backstory

Our Manor in located in the Midwest and was first constructed in 1906. It has been a plethora of different businesses since then. What started out as a one-story drug store, soon became a two-story drug store and medical practice. It was once a shoe store, a laundromat, and is now my boutique and future dream home.

There has been so many different interior design styles since then, however, one thing was there for it all, just sitting under the surface….these beautiful antique brick walls.

If these walls could talk, I wonder what stories they could share. I have heard tales of bootlegged moonshine, first dates sharing milkshakes, granddaughters playing in their grandfather’s store, fights that have broken out on stairwells, and railroaders staying in for the evening. I think my very own mother had told me that she used to buy shoes there with my grandmother when she was a child. How neat is that?!

Saying Goodbye to A Piece of History

When we first bought this building, it came with a historical mural. Not saying that this was not great, it just was not what we had originally envisioned in our space. The details were actually quite charming and I love the fact that they did this in what could have been just an ordinary laundromat. It makes this place even more unique and I am really glad that my mother and I saved a piece of it to frame later as a little memento of times past.

As you can see in this photo below, the wall itself was not in the best of shape. The peeling paint and crumbling plaster desperately needed addressing.

The Curiosity Begins

My mom and I had originally planned to repaint the plaster walls a bright neutral color. Never having dealt with plaster before, I started to research. It was in that research that I had learned about old buildings and their fire walls.

Firewalls are structures built between two buildings to help prevent the spread of fire and collapse. They are often made of concrete but buildings created before World War II were often made of brick. This of course piqued my interest. Was there brick lurking behind all of this paint and plaster? How do I check? If there were brick, would we be capable of exposing it ourselves? What tools would we need for this project? Sooo many questions I had! I figured I could sit here contemplating all the ifs, ands, or buts however the best thing to do would be to just GO FOR IT!

Gathering Supplies

Mom and I went to Lowes and grabbed chisels, clothing protectors, safety goggles, and masks. We also grabbed a lead testing kit. You can’t ever be too careful when you are working with an old structure. According to my research, they did not start adding asbestos to plaster until after 1920 so I knew we did not have to be concerned with that. I was so excited! I couldn’t wait to get started working on exposing this brick wall!

Getting Started

After gathering all of our supplies, we began to work, dressed in full regalia! Honestly, I don’t think I have ever felt more attractive in my life. This could have been the perfect picture for my online dating profile at the time. 😂

How Do You Eat An Elephant? One Piece At A Time…

I am not really sure what I had in mind for this project but I did not realize what a huge undertaking this really was. I put my chisel to the plaster and went to town. It took me at least 5 minutes of chiseling to uncover the first small portion of brick. We were so very excited!! Though it is difficult, it becomes addictive. I even found myself dreaming of removing huge chunks of plaster in my sleep! The more we uncovered, the more excited we became!

Recruiting Help

In the beginning you are running off of pure excitement and it really keeps you going. However, after about 3 days of constant chiseling, body aches, wrist braces, and exhaustion, you realize just how long something like this was going to take. Sure I could use a power chiseler tool to get the job done much faster, but sometimes those do way more damage to antique brick than they help. We did not want to take that risk. Paying someone to come in here to do this would have cost thousands that I simply did not have. We decided to recruit help.

My Sweet Friend Katie

First to the rescue was a dear friend from high school named Katie. She jumped right in and just having her around put a fresh new wind in our sails! Katie was such an incredible help and I owe her so much for pitching in. She worked hard with us for several long days and it really made a difference!

Between the three of us, we were able to finish one whole wall. At 83 feet long, and 14 foot tall, that is ALOT of ground to cover. Not only did we have to chisel, we had to continue to clean up the HUGE debris piles that accumulated in order to get the ladder where it needed to be.

We were like The Three Musketeers! So much fun was had with her and these are memories that I will cherish forever.

An Ode To Stephanie

Katie did not live locally anymore so unfortunately she had to go back home. She sure earned some R&R after her trip! Another one of my friends had offered to help and I jumped at the opportunity to have her!

Stephanie is one of those great people who can always make you laugh. She is the kind of friend who no matter what you are doing, you know you’ll have a great time. I was excited to have her come and help!

Even though I am pretty sure she injured herself during this day, we still had so much fun!

My Brother and my nephew even came to pitch in! We did not have enough chisels so we started getting creative with the tools we were using. If you notice that we are not wearing our protective suits anymore it is because they kept getting shredded from all of the falling plaster. We simply decided to go without.

Having people that you love around to help you build your dream vision is a special kind of thing. It meant so much that others were willing to dedicate their time in assisting us. It makes Our Manor On Main even that much more special, because it was built with love. ❤

Cleanup

After weeks and weeks of body breaking work, the walls were fully exposed [Insert Angels Singing]. The only thing left to do is cleanup the mess before we can seal the newly exposed antique brick wall.

Mom always lovingly joked that I was great at making messes and she was great at cleaning them up. 🤣 This mess was proudly one of the largest I have ever created! In my defense, she aided in the mess as well.

If you ever find yourself doing a project like this or any kind of home project that requires you to haul things, I highly suggest investing in one of these wagons. We continue to use this for everything especially our many projects in this building. It is well worth what we paid for it.

To clean up, we shoveled all of the mountains of plaster rocks, filled these buckets, and wheeled them out to the trailer. This took several trips as you can imagine. It was also very exhausting work! Mom was such a champ though and before long, we had the whole place swept clean.

Now it is time to seal the brick!! Stay tuned for Part 2!

Here are a few fun photos from this project: