SKATING ON THE RINGS OF SATURN

Back when I was a library bound teenager I befriended a girl named A---- who a walking collection of bouncing angles. She was an odd one, a smart hooiser with a rabid stink eye and a smile that was hedged with teeth. I used to think of her (and her family) as People of the Teeth. Their trenchant wit had the chomp of a whip.

She both intrigued and frightened me. She wasn't pleasant or generous, no, but she was an original.

Some of her originality may have been inspired by her older brother, a Viet Nam Vet who became an iron worker. He was a freaking terror. A----- once told me a story about how he was leaving the old Rusty Springs bar one night when some guy made a pass at his girlfriend. The bro picked up the receiver of the wall phone near the door, jammed in into the guys mouth and twisted it around forcefully. The guy lost a lot of teeth.

Turned out it was the wrong guy.

Viet Nam didn't kill him, it was a fall from a building he was working on downtown in the 80's.

I worked downtown in the late 70's and, while walking to lunch one day heard a whistle that I just knew was directed at me. Not a woof call but a Hey You whistle. I looked around and upwards and eight 'floors' up was her brother walking a girder and waving at me. That was impressive, I'd only met him twice and was surprised he spotted me in a crowd from that height.

A---- had a convoluted vocabulary loaded with mysterious expressions. One was, You are so far out you're skating on the rings of Saturn.

We were BF's for a decade. Eventually we parted. She found a higher power and I, well I had my molars pulled.

TINY SQUARES BRICK & HOOSIER MORTAR

This is the story of astounding face bricks and 'mortar' out of a tube.

I am an admirer of bricks, especially face bricks. Face brick is the name for the decorative bricks that were used on the front of the house that faces the street. This photo illustrates face brick on the front of the building and regular (I can't bring myself to say 'common') red brick used on the side.



I love face brick! So when I discover a previously undiscovered (to me) brick, it's always exciting.

These are on Morgan Ford Road between Hartford and Connecticut. Cool bricks, huh?


Then there's the hoosier repointing job. That gunk is 'mortar' that can be bought in a tube. It's weird stuff, I've used it before to patch a small burrowed hole in my foundation. It has a fey spongy consistency as it slowly sets. I was pushing small rocks into it the next day and it was pushing back!

The only way to apply the goo is with a finger.
The trick I used is to coat my fingers with dishwashing soap (so the 'mortar' doesn't stick to me).

This was never meant to be used as brick mortar and mortar is not an adhesive.



That's Missy Van Winkle's Hand.

Dear Mayor Slay

Almost a year ago, I called in various code violations to CSB on 4251-53 Juniata St

The serious violations are the rotting back porch, missing mortar and the sidewalk.

I've read on Case Net http://stlcin.missouri.org/citydata/newdesign/csb.cfm?handle=15062000380 that the owner is on notice. What does mean?

I know the tenants in this four unit building and like them as neighbors. It's great that the building owner has such wonderful tenants.

It's annoying that my tenants have this view from their two floor porch every day. It's also embarrassing when I'm showing my flat to lease.

I've called in the tuckpointing problem to CSB. An inspector who was doing an occupancy permit on my building last summer also noted and cited the missing mortar. These photos are of the top of the building on the west side.


Those aren't shadows, that's missing mortar!



That top corner brick should be rebedded.



The sidewalk has serious problems. I've read on Case Net that it's on the 50/50 program but can these conditions safely wait that long? I recently bought an eighty pound bag of mortar and it was 9.00 (with tax). What's the hold up?

About four months ago, a new tenant moved in. Didn't the occupancy permit inspector (I assume she visited) note the condition of the porch during that visit? When the inspector visits here, she always views the back of my building.

Considering the building doesn't have any empty units and the rents being collected must total at least 1,600.00, why can't the owner afford to repair the sidewalk?





The back porch saga.

Only one of four handrails is attached to the bottom pole.




Porch deck is rotting.




The paint is peeling all over the first deck and porch divider.



The red arrows show where the downspout have been broken for years. It should drain under the pavement into the sewer line. It rusted through a few years ago, the rain splashes outside of the pipe and has caused the pavement to start sinking. Isn't this a code violation?

The lumber and ladder have been stowed under the rotting porch for a year. I'm guessing when an inspector visits, the owner tells them he's ready to start work any day.

BRICK FENCE - 42 HARTFORD

Many years ago I met the owner of this house, he had made this brick 'fence' in his front yard. Dustin and Amy now live in it on 42 Hartford.

Cool bricks.

WHEN SMOKE GETS IN MY EYES

My friend and former tenant Mo works at Iron Age. She's swell and is one of the smarter and talented women I know. (Iron Age co-owner, Brad Fink worked on my back tattoo 18 years ago. I don't think he was even old enough to drive back then.)

Mo did the tattoo on my arm a few years ago and when we recently chatted she offered to do some more ink for me. I jumped on it since people keep asking me if my forearm tattoo is speakers and I keep telling them to google the Golden Mean. (I joked with Bruk today: I should tell them, yeah, I'm a stripper DJ!)

I drove over to the Loop yesterday, saw Mo and snapped a pix.
She's wrapping the arm of the chair with plastic so I don't bleed all over it.

While she prepared the stencil I overheard a young women telling another artist about the tattoo she wanted to have on her butt, That which does not destroy me makes me stronger. He went off to render the stencil. A few moments later, she sneered my way so I asked her, Why would you have a quote from Neitzche on your body, he was a misogynist.

Who's Neitzche?
The man that wrote that.
What's a massage-ist?
A man that hates women.
That's OK, I hate women too a lot of the time. My boyfriend just dumped me for one!

************************************************************************

How do you tolerate this, I asked Mo after climbing into the chair, and have you ever refused to do a tattoo?
She shook her head and said, I refuse to tattoo racist content.
People asked for that!?
All the time.

A few moments later I went outside and saw the Neitzche groupie smoking and sitting in a chair. As I sat down next to her, she deliberately exhaled in my face.

Nice, I told her. Do you realize Hitler institutionalized Nietzsche as a kind of official philosopher. The soldiers in Hitler's army were forced to carry copies of Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in their knapsacks as they went in to battle.

Put that on your butt and smoke it.
I winked, patted her thigh and exited, stage left.

Before:

Stencil applied.

Outline applied:

After (and quite swollen)

SKINTLED BRICKS

From Lynn Josse via St. Louis Building Arts Foundation.
Click on the image to read the text.

COAL CHUTES

Partially every home in the city has a coal chute. Coal was delivered by truck and left either on the sidewalk outside of the house or, for an extra fee, delivered to the chute.

One of my earliest memories is having coal delivered to our house at 3964 McDonald. I remember seeing my dad in the basement with a shovel and wanting to know what was going on. I heard noise in the gangway, went out the back door and saw a guy with a wheel barrow emptying coal into the chute.

My neighbor Pop recently told me about having a ton of coal delivered. It was left on the sidewalk and he spent four hours with a shovel tossing it into the chute. The ton of coal lasted all winter. He lived in a four family at the time and said one of the other people living there didn't have any coal. When he noticed they were using his, he padlocked his bin.

Why were they using your coal, I asked.
They were so poor they couldn't afford any.


Coal chute at Peggy's house w/ a stencil by Piet!

MOHAWK WARRIOR MORTAR

I had a rather large foundation crack that needed some attention so I posted on the Rehabber's group and asked for advice. Shish, those Rehabber people! Ask them a question, get a few answers and then they start trying to one up each other.

I went with Jeff Neumann's advice: Just use a Type S mortar with some sugar sand mixed in (15-20 shovels for each bag of mortar) should do the job. If you're able to grind the crack out first, the application will take better. Also remember that the cracks can reoccur as the building settles, so this may not be a permanent fix. Nu-way sells an epoxy based mortar which may be a bit better for your situation, although the Type S is pretty standard. Best of luck.

TGH resident and friend, Other Tim added, useless human knowledge:
mortar "harndess" designations come from looking at every other
letter in the phrase "MaSoN wOrK". M is the hardest, O and K are
recognized (by whatever entities recognizes such things...)but
seldom, if ever, used. N is standard for older structures.

I took Jeff's advice and ended up with an eighty pound bag of Mohawk Mortar.

I googled Mohawk Mortar with no results...so what's behind the name?


The mega crack


Go ahead and sneer, these are the tools I used:
Trowel for lifting the mortar out of the bag.
Pan cake turner for mixing.
A dust pan for filling the crack, the mortar slid in.
Sofa pillow snatched in the alley for sitting on while working.
Beau supervising.



Filled and setting.

HOW TO KILL CURB APPEAL & OFFEND YOUR NEIGHBOR

Hi.

I'm your neighbor that lives up the street. Thrice a week I pass your building and am writing to express my distress about 1) the painted steps, 2) the horrid repointing on the (once) outstanding porch. The only thing pretty in this photo is the back of Beaus' head (note he's looking away from the steps. That's my boy.)

I could have let the painted steps slide without comment.



But this?


What is this, some home made cement mojo mixed in the basement and applied with a spatula and spray gun?

You've some of my most favorite brick on your building - what I call incised brick (it's not, that's just my name for it. It was fired in a mold with ridges). I love the soldier bond used on the top and bottom of the porch!

You may have considered the subtle range of color to your bricks before painting the steps dismal gray. The colors resonate with nature and all that is Outside.

Added to Hoosier Contracting:

4012 JUNIATA

Yesterday I spotted these two bricks on the walkway to the most troubled house in Tower Grove South. I seriously did a double take then snickered and giggled at the two bricks outside of this vinyl sided double wide.

Click on the title above to read more on the double wide.

PRANKING STEVE WILKE-SHAPIRO

Every so often while Tim and I were dining on Grand I'd say, Let's prank Steve!

We both thought this was an excellent idea and would walk (well, I limped) over to SWS's house giggling. Two middle age weirdo's out to prank an unsuspecting serious guy.

The first time was almost funny (for us). We knocked, waited and guffawed. When Rachel opened the door, we asked if we were too early for the dinner party which supposedly had been announced on the TGS group.

The second time was a flop. YIKES!

Steve Wilke-Shapiro, architect, urban planner, community activist and friend of Marti Frumhoff was responsible for creating http://www.15thwardstl.org/ the only blog in the city that covers a ward.

15wardstl.org will continue to provide articles by two TGS/H residents, Mike and Adam.

View from SWS's porch.