Hiraeth Restorations, LLC

10/30/2026

Just two or three more days like today and we’ll bid farewell to Bucks County for awhile.

09/09/2026

The stone wall is starting to coming through! The mortar put in last year on the Salem law office is holding strong along with what I’m calling the Virtuvius brick patches. The next seven days are going to see some hard traveling:
Bucks County stone wall cleaning, today and Thursday. Virginia log cabin touch ups Friday or Saturday, Salem law office Sunday and Monday, pick up the new top white oak plates near Dover for the Delaware springhouse at some point this week. Incidentally, it took MONTHS to find the right logs for those. But at least I’ll have some help three days a week beginning on Sunday. My sixteen year old boy wants to learn the trade. Not sure which one but reckon we’ll start with pointing masonry.

09/05/2026

Here’s a mystery: found a few minutes buried under a porch being restored, down beside one of the old stone piers.

08/21/2026

Uncovering a historic stone wall. If you look closely you can see windows and putlogs appear.

08/18/2026

Almost done! Well, not really. Should have the rest of the stucco down tomorrow. Then begins the slow, tedious, and delicate work of cleaning each individual stone, clearing each mortar joint, and repointing with lime and sand. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

07/31/2026

Mysteries in Stone

07/30/2026

Sometimes, I find a few spare moments to write. It's one of the more pleasant tasks I get to perform. Far more pleasant than the quarter ton of stucco I get to shovel off the truck as soon as I finish this post. C'est la vie!

Changing Masonry

07/30/2026

Uncovering a “lost” 18th Century Window

07/23/2026

Looks like we found a “ghost”! Outline of an 18th Century window sealed up and forgotten under some pretty nasty stucco. The stucco was bad. The “stonework” built into the old window opening is poorly executed to say the least. All in all, an interest day’s work.

07/15/2026

Timbers all in and it feels like a real house again. Just a couple of small pieces and a splice or two and it’ll be in fine shape.