"Icing on the Cake"

Just to remind you (and us!), this didn't happen overnight.  This house was and is, truly, a labor of love.  For years, we knew we wanted old brick landings at the base of our porch steps.  But when you restore a house, one project at a time, some things just have to wait.

It's hard to remember that we spent years climbing into the house.  Ladders, brick stacks, cement blocks.  That's how we entered the house!  Even after the porches were built, we hoisted ourselves up.

We decided on brick for the porch pillars to match our fireplace.  

Then . . .  fall of 2013 . . . stairs!

And finally . .  paint!

But our brick landings would have to wait for . . . 3 more years.

And here we are.  We are no longer a construction site. At the end of this summer, we graded the yard, planted seed, and put in our brick landings. Here is one of the masons laying brick below the back steps.

And the front . . .

Then construction debris is removed, and the yard is graded.

As our mason worked on the brick, he looked up, smiled, and said, "this is icing on the cake!"