Prettying up for St. Patrick's Day

Sam puts the final touches on Cregeen's Irish pub's front doors to ready them for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. Last year Becky and I watched the parade at 5th and Main in Argenta. V3 Partners had just begun to construct a building at 3rd and Main which houses Cregeens. We remarked then as how we would have to quaff a pint of Guinness in here this St. Patrick's Day. Now Cregeen's is a reality and the building is about complete. Cheers!
We are grateful to live in a neighborhood with so much life. Each project like the ballpark and Cregeen's have been eagerly anticipated and each has exceeded expectations. Other projects equally anticipated are coming on line and new projects are still to be formally announced. A St. Patrick's toast to Argenta and all the people hard at work to make it even better still!

As the World Turns -Or- Look Before You Leap

You know the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words? I cut these bushes back last summer to reveal this situation and the image was burned in my mind. The thousand words I first thought concerned worry, doubt and insecurity. This is the front wall around the porch and I exposed it for all the world and Becky to see. The folks who restored the house did great work overall and they took a stab at tuck pointing this. The smudged bricks at the top are the dead give away. There is other work like this around the house.
During my years as a masonry laborer it didn't take me long to figure out that the laborer who took an active interest and learned to mix the mud to the masons' liking got the job of mixing mud. I quickly became that person thereby gaining exemption from much of the heavy lifting, toting block and setting scaffold. One year, on a hotel job in Florida, I mixed so much mud I thought a large beach had been moved with my shovel. I mixed mud for brick masons and watched them at their craft for five years.
Even armed with this great experience I must confess my thoughts have been centered on defeat. Maybe that's why this situation persists today? I began to find peace by accepting and acknowledging, not so much the ugly situation but, that my thoughts issued in unbelief. I turned my thoughts from the dead past to positive impulses of the life I desire. Then the world turned and now I see the real good in this. It is a demand to be met profitably; a perfect example of typical problems found in brick work on wonderful, old homes. Lack of faith is the central problem blocking restoration. Restoration, of a life or a building, ever begins with an intolerable situation. An idea comes and gives birth to pure, positive thoughts of life anew with fresh, young purpose. Wonderful!
Confidence is gained through study. I call attention to the National Parks Service "Preservation Briefs" link I have placed conveniently to the left. The preservation briefs are the beginning point, the best foundational resource for all restoration work. There is so much golden treasure in the preservation briefs that I feel it is my duty as an American to urge you to sift this eternal, national wisdom carefully and absorb it's import and history. For this topic look under repair of masonry.
Before the world turned I made excuses. Now is the time to make plans. An inventory of my tools reveals that I have somehow acquired all the equipment I need. I guess my sub conscience has been at work. I seem to recall a job of pouring a foundation and building a block retaining wall. I recall pouring concrete flooring tile in the basement and this gives me hope. I had to acquire specialized masonry tools for these jobs. Turning to the subject of materials I have learned there is a great old line masonry dealer not three blocks from my house. It's where I got my mud pan and trowel. The supply house, Martin Borchet Company, possibly supplied materials in 1928 when this house was constructed. So I have tools and materials covered.
Now, to devise a sound plan, I need to look at my project through the eyes and hearts and minds of the architect and engineer to plan on paper in clear detail. One rule in restoration is that there are no rules; you never know what you're getting into. Said another way, "Look before you leap".

Looking for a Way?

When I was young I began to work up through the trades. I spent five years as a hod tender. (also known as a mason's helper) I am deeply fascinated with the masonry trade. Masonry goes back to the dawn of civilization. People realized a need and so began the laying of one stone atop another for shelter and protection. The masonry trade instructs civilization in universal principles concerning foundation, line and level. In this modern era there are breakthrough developments which enable masonry work to be done with great efficiency and creativity. Yet, all such work is firmly laid on the foundation of the eternal principles.
In this neighborhood almost every house has brick work of some kind. Unless the brickwork has received tuck pointing, almost every house needs re-pointing. Our house is a perfect example. Tuck pointing is a task requiring specialized skills. I would like to call attention to the need and show that masonry repair is a very fertile field for a person seeking such opportunity. When home owners see bricks with degraded and missing mortar the first thought may be fear and apprehension at what will possibly be a costly, but very needful repair. To a man or woman starting out this is an opportunity to calm these fears with a decisive answer. I suggest the idea of specialization to provide such repairs. A person who can learn to effect repairs in a price range attainable by the average homeowner and make a profit, can learn to create a great demand for his or her services. Such a person will see and feel a connection with the ancient craft and realize the reward of a true contribution to society.
Check out my link to the National Park Service preservation briefs and look under repair of masonry. I've taken this photo from that brief.

Coming to Argenta Redux

Today the word has gone forth that a grocery store is to open in downtown Argenta, Arkansas this summer. I love this photo a friend of ours took on a recent trip to Italy. I thought this would be a good time to post it again. Follow the link on the left to the Argenta blog for the complete story.
Many thanks to Mr. Gaudin and Mr. Hardin for taking a chance and bringing the neighborhood a much needed grocery store. I am sure it will be first class.

Thought Leads to Restoration

A vagrant spirit inhabits a dead house. When you walk into a dead house you smell it and feel it in the still, dank air. It tries to scare you and bluff you into leaving it be. A vagrant spirit is ugly and stinks like plaster rot. A vagrant spirit moves into a house gradually and finally begins to own the house by default because the human owner is unable or unwilling to keep it out. The vagrant spirit thrives on scattered remnants of dead dreams long past. The vagrant spirit doesn't want you to notice it's habitation. It wants no change. It wants you to pass by, to leave it to it's cheap wine and hand rolled tobacco just one more day. But a vagrant spirit is only a feeling of vacant thought.
A day dawns when, before the sun again sets,the spirit is cast out by decision. On this day demolition or restoration has come to the house. Someone with a mind set on restoration shows up and the vagrant spirit slips out. The vagrant spirit vanishes like stale cigarette smoke in sunlight filtering through boarded up windows when the doors are finally thrown open to restoration. A vagrant spirit never really owns a house, it is a squatter.
Thoughts are things. Abandon constructive thought, as in the case of an absent slumlord and in come the tramp thoughts. Soon more tramp thoughts are attracted and now the house is home to bums, parasites who have no respect; no positive, active thinking. Tramps won't visualize a table in the dinning room set for a thanksgiving family.
Restoration often dawns when conditions are at their worst; in the blackest, darkest night. Some good people thought well and restored what would become our house. Becky and I had known each other in High School. We reacquainted and came together three years ago. We both were alone before and both dreamed of a new home. When the sisters opened the door on the first day of restoration, and took the "before" pictures who would know Becky and I would get together? Who could have told that two years later when the sisters tacked up their "For Sale By Owner" sign Becky and I would happen along to discover a home and a neighborhood? This house was restored to new life and we were redeemed with it. Sound thinking produced a transaction that was win-win-win; for the sisters, the house and for us. Becky dreamed and I dreamed; we thought of restoration and our thoughts were rewarded. If you are in need of restoration, draft the same power into your service and think. Have and hold faith. Watch your dreams come true.

Dream, Think; Dream Some More

The focus of this post is the pink store. On the left a recently restored building houses the modern offices of an Architectural design firm. This is the middle of the 400 block of Main Street in Argenta, Arkansas. From what I have read on our neighborhood blog, which is linked to this blog, this space is to become a cafe. The last post features construction of the City Grove Town Homes model unit just beginning across the alley behind this block. The yellow mark on the sidewalk on this side of the street is a trolley stop. I took this picture standing in a parking lot which will become a farmers market for locally grown produce. (More on the farmers market project at a later date.)
When I learn of any development concerning this property I will report the story here. This is an adventure in restoration. You can bet there are many people focusing their thoughts on creating new life in this space. There are people with differing ideas; with dreams of establishing an enterprise here which will serve crowds of people a useful benefit. One idea will win out. I wish them every success!
Several spaces on Main between 3rd and 7th are available for restoration development. Many old stores on Main have been restored to new purpose.

The Real and The Dream

Here on Maple Street in Argenta, Arkansas a bold dream is beginning to come true. The City Grove Townhomes will occupy blocks 400 to 600. The builder, Dave Grundfest Company, is just beginning to make it happen. I know Grundfest builds high quality structures. Inside the orange construction netting at 400 Maple the ground is being prepared for the first unit to be used as the model home. In all I think 57 units are planned. I have a link to the development web site and there you can find all the information available.
Reality on this urban street was pretty dismal up to now. But for some time behind the scenes people have been wrestling for and against this dream of urban restoration. The dream has won out and grim reality has had to move on.
Money and manpower and materials and architectural renderings are the media to construct buildings. The real power is thought. This project began as a simple thought and multiplying thought has brought this project to where it stands today. Thought will carry the project on to completion and the plans will be fulfilled. As the final dabs of paint are put on and the last construction dust is swept away, papers will be signed and checks will be written; ownership of the dream will change hands. The new people coming in buy the dream. They will bring their stuff, their tables and chairs, their sofas and beds, but more importantly, they will bring their thoughts. (Make them good thoughts!)
Our good and positive thoughts and our prayers are with the developers and with the new neighbors yet to come. We are grateful for the growing restoration of life in the neighborhood these new homes are bringing.